Fordham vs Syracuse vs University of Rochester vs Stony Brook

I have been accepted to all of these universities. I will be an economics major at all of them besides Fordham. At Fordham I will be a finance major at Gabelli. I would just like some input on things like campus life and job opportunities for these universities and majors. Any information is helpful.

I would go with Fordham due to the location in NYC.

I think job opportunities in NYC would be hard to beat.

What are your goals? Cost? I noticed you are interested in finance. Keep in mind that despite its NYC location, Fordham isn’t a target school for the more well known investment banks on Wall Street.

Spend some time looking at the curriculum for an undergraduate b-school and econ majors (should be able to be found online). I’m not saying one path is better than the other, but they are pretty different. Economics is a liberal arts course of study and gets very theoretical at the upper levels. In contrast if you go to an undergraduate business school you will take a business core with introductory classes in subjects such as accounting, finance, IT, marketing etc. and then you will major in one of those disciplines. Think about what would be a better match for your interests and aptitudes.

For full disclosure, my S went to Gabelli (accounting major) and was very happy there. I’d also say that you would have to complete a pretty rigorous core curriculum at Fordham so you can look at that online as well to see if you’d be OK with it.

And FWIW I don’t think any of the schools on the OP’s list would be more of a target for IB as compared to Gabelli.

They will have very different experiences. Fordham is, obviously, an urban school right in the city; Stony Brook is close enough for a day trip but not for a regular commute (well, unless you just want to be on the LIRR for a couple hours every day). Rochester and Syracuse are far from NYC but in their own cities with their own opportunities.

There’s also the valid question of whether you want to study finance or economics - as was already pointed out, they are different majors. Economics is a social science. Finance is an applied/professional field of study.

Is there a kind of campus life experience you are looking for? And what are the costs?

Per the NYC and upstate/Long Island debate… Focus less on the city that your school is in, and I can say that having grown up in and loving NYC. Focus more on the academic programs and activities that your school offers. If you go to a decent school (and all mentioned fit that category) and you do well, job finding is not a problem. It’s way more important to find happiness within your school in than finding the cool nightclub off campus. That’s for when you graduate :slight_smile:

Thanks for all the information. I think I have narrowed my choices downs to Fordham and Syracuse. As for my major I have done a lot of research on economics vs finance and I think I will switch to a finance major if I go to Syracuse.

Both Fordham and Cuse are great choices. My daughter is a junior at Whitman and Newhouse. You can easily add Economics as a second n major. You will need only 18 Economics credits out of your 27 free credits as you need to take 3 Economics courses at Whitman and one of your Finance classes could count toward the Economics major. You can have both majors with the same 122 credits.
I also love the Jesuit colleges as my oldest did very well at a Jesuit school.
You may want to visit both again to see which campus and vibe works for you.
Good luck with your decision. You really cannot go wrong.

Can you just “switch” to the major or do you have to apply to the business school?