<p>Hi, my friend just got into Fordham and has to pay only $22,000-25,000, not sure of the exact price. My friend is not telling me his gpa. Can anyone tell me around where would his GPA would be. He said he got no financial aid and got mostly this price due to his gpa. Also, i heard fordham doesn't give packages under $30,000 then how did he get it?</p>
<p>I have no idea what your friend’s GPA is but Fordham does give packages under $30,000 --my S has one!</p>
<p>You probably can’t figure out his GPA based on his scholarship award. Scholarships are based on numerous factors, including standardized test scores and leadership.</p>
<p>Fordham does offer many scholarships below 30,000. The dean’s scholarship ranges anywhere between 10,000 and just below full tuition each year.</p>
<p>Interesting that your friend has no problem talking about money but won’t reveal his GPA? Or are you just being pushy and nosy by asking such personal questions?!!</p>
<p>[Traditional</a> Rose Hill and Lincoln Center Fordham University Aid](<a href=“http://www.fordham.edu/tuition__financial_a/undergraduate_studen/types_of_financial_a/traditional_rose_hil_2158.asp]Traditional”>http://www.fordham.edu/tuition__financial_a/undergraduate_studen/types_of_financial_a/traditional_rose_hil_2158.asp)</p>
<p>Read over the criteria for these merit awards and you will see that awards and amounts can vary based on a number of factors including need in some cases. This is why someone might receive a $10k Dean’s scholarship and someone else might receive the same Dean’s scholarship but at the maximum $22k award. The Dean’s scholarship is a MERIT award regardless of the amount and both applicants are at the top of the pool.</p>
<p>You probably can’t figure out how your friend’s COA is $22-25k even if you have the full profile of academic stats, financial profile, and ALL other factors because his complete package may have included more than one merit award. You certainly can’t figure out his GPA based on his COA but you can be sure that if he received merit money, it was very good. Really what it comes down to is that almost everyone attending Fordham is paying a different amount for their education depending on their own personal profile. </p>
<p>Judging from your prior posts you are a Junior. If you are planning on applying to Fordham and you get in, you will receive your own financial package which should help you decide if Fordham is the school for you. If you are NOT interested in applying to Fordham then I think you are, in fact, being too nosy and should MYOB. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>I have posted before that financial aid and scholarships are the last vestige of old discrimination…some of it reverse discrimination. Admissions have been attacked at the Supreme Court. But financial aid and scholarships have been left alone. A lot of monkey business occurs in this process I can assure you. Anyone who says its fair and equitable and objectively measurable is a disingenuous liar. Be VERY suspect of anything you hear from ANY employee or administrator in any university on this matter. They give money to whom they please and how much they please. They can use FAFSA to help you or hurt you. They can use your gpa and SAT to help you or hurt you. Its entirely up to them. THey have their own agendas, which may vary from day to day or year to year. That is the bad news.</p>
<p>The good news is that its not entirely a crap shoot and entirely unfair and inequitable. There are some basic standards. Fordham DOES consider your needs in awarding scholarships and grants. But they also give more money to people they really want (for whatever reason that may be) than to people they don’t really want. They admit too many people, in my opinion. A 49% admit rate is too high. They give out huge money to people who sneer at Fordham and accept offers at higher ranked schools, meanwhile people delighted to be accepted at Fordham (middle class) and who truly NEED the money, get hosed by the VERY INADEQUATE AND SKEWED WORLD OF FAFSA. But Fordham is not alone in this mess. It goes on everywhere.</p>
<p>Its very discouraging to those who dont get enough and have to borrow up the ying yang, and Fordham tells them, “well you can go to a state school if you don’t like it.” </p>
<p>And for those who think, “well if I come to Fordham and perform really well they will give me more scholarship money?” Guess again. Very, very limited scholarships are available for upperclassmen and most are in communications programs. If I had a magic wand and was in charge of the world I would radically change the entire landscape for “scholarships” and financial aid to make it very equitable. And I dont want to hear about the people who have high SAT kids and get a boatload of money and who dont really need the money…because the bottom line IS the bottom line. To me, it should ALL be financial aid, like the Ivy League does it. With LIMITED athletic scholarships (most athletes need the money anyway…some come from dire circumstances.) </p>
<p>No, I dont want to punish the rich. But there is NO entitlement to money. It should be given to those in need not to those who DONT need it. Its pathetic that middle class families have to say NO to Fordham, or take on HUGE loans to finance it, while some of the privileged few simply because their kids perform well on an SAT exam (which itself is under high criticism for relevance and accuracy). </p>
<p>If we take the view, like the Ivy League, that people who NEED help, get help, and all others pay the bills, then that is FAIR. The notion that SAT=MONEY is bogus. Its a legal fiction that has been like a cancer on our society and its elitist. </p>
<p>I reject it with all my power. Vociferously.</p>
<p>Yes, I want bright kids at Fordham. I want Fordham to continue to rise in the ranks. But I also reject elitism and privilege while middle class people with EQUALLY SMART kids get hammered.</p>
<p>My kid was JUST BELOW THE 1400 threshold for scholarship money at Fordham. We got some grant money. We are grateful for that. But we also feel shackled by FAFSA and the big lie it projects. Falling home values decimated people. Falling retirement accounts and savings accounts decimated people. </p>
<p>Fordham also suffers from the WallStreet Syndrome where a LOT of people who apply to Fordham come from WEALTHY FAMILIES in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut with VERY high paying jobs. That skews the picture for people in other regions where a six figure salary is fairly rare unless you are a doctor and job security is tenuous at best. </p>
<p>it is TRUE that going to a cheap state school is an option. But that is NOT what the Jesuit schools are about. </p>
<p>Yes, Fordham also admits a lot of pell grant kids to their credit. I applaud that. I really do. I know a kid who just graduated from the Honors program who finished Summa Cum Laude who comes from a low income family. He worked his ass off.</p>
<p>The system is broken nationwide and needs to be fixed. Otherwise we will pay a heavy price for the elitist processes which are infecting us. </p>
<p>I know I am in the minority in my views. A lot of people who have kids with high SATs and high income feel “entitled” to the money. I reject that notion. Sorry. </p>
<p>To me, if you have the income, you stroke the checks and move on. Let people who NEED the money get the money and stop being a pig at the hog trough.</p>
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<p>I can say the opposite. The people in other states where a six figure income is rare skew the picture for the ones living in a high income areas. I live in suburban New York and my town has an average income over $100,000. My family is considered above average in this town, but that doesn’t mean they have the ability to allocate $60,000 a year to finance my education. </p>
<p>The relativity of income in a given region and the expenses need to be considered in the financial aid process. I shouldn’t be automatically denied federal and state grants because my parents make well over 100,000 a year. Income should not be based on the actual figure, but the distribution relative to average income:</p>
<p>New York:
Average for town: $110,000
Family A: $195,000</p>
<p>Kentucky:
Average for town: $25,000
Family B: $50,000</p>
<p>Speaking solely on the amount of income, the Kentucky family is far poorer, but it is relatively richer than family A. Is it fair that B receives more aid than family A simply because their raw number is lower? Not at all.</p>
<p>You wont be denied aid if your family makes in the low six figures and lives in New York. </p>
<p>Your generalization that a family in Kentucky making 50k a year is far richer is not true at all. If they live in some rural mountain community perhaps their quality of life is better because its rural ( 
but its not necessarily wealthier. Moreover, a number of cities in Kentucky are very cosmopolitan and expensive. Have you been there recently? Take I-64 across the northern part of the state sometime from Louisville to just south of Cincinnati. It may surprise you how cosmo it is, how beautiful it is, and yes…how expensive it is. </p>
<p>Salaries in general are grossly inflated in New York. I understand you cant generalize about them either and that many people live in crowded apartment buildings and are just getting by…</p>
<p>The biggest difference I see is the cost of housing in New York is so egregiously inflated it does take a huge salary to pay the mortgage. But many people in New York have lived in the same house for over 20 years and bought at much lower prices…so even that is somewhat skewed.</p>
<p>The problem is tuition/room-board have skyrocketed in the last 10 years. Fordham used be 25k a year-all in. Now its approaching 53k- all in. (And its not alone.) Nobody can tell me its because of rising health care costs alone. Some of that is being stuffed away in the endowment. </p>
<p>Colleges are non profits. But that is a tax issue, it doesnt mean they don’t make money. In fact they are a business and they make plenty of money. Where they squirrel it away is another matter. </p>
<p>My overall point is that financial aid is not immune from “politics” and “favoritism”. I wish with all my heart that those who have been accepted to Fordham and who truly want to attend Fordham (not the acceptance letter collectors who will bolt to the highest ranking USNWR college they can find), should truly get the aid they need to attend.</p>
<p>Its outrageous asking a college kid to assume anymore than 25k in debt to finance their education and also asking parents to assume 100k or more to pay for it. Outrageous. Immoral. Unconscionable. But it is what it is. And there doesnt seem to be any method to stop the madness.</p>
<p>Jesuits take vows of poverty. If they get paid at all, they donate it to the Society of Jesus or back to the University. But the expense of lay administrators is growing at Fordham. Then there is the athletic scholarship problem. If the teams win and they pack the house and bring in revenue…fine. But if they lose, as in Fordham’s case, and have empty seats, its a huge expense that is hard to justify. </p>
<p>I’m not here to discuss Fordham’s budget. I am not on the budget committee there. Nor employed by Fordham. </p>
<p>But Fordham desperately needs to find a way to help the middle income students who go there. And admitting 10,000 students and then offering them a pittance in financial aid as a means of weeding out the ones you don’t really want, to get down to the yield of 1,700 entering freshmen, is not very nice it seems to me. It is what it is. But I would much prefer they admit 5,000 students and offer better financial aid to more students and have a higher yield on admitted students, higher selectivity and ultimately fewer broken hearts. Its better to tell someone no, than to tell them yes but we wont offer you any money to come here…just my humble opinion.</p>
<p>Ghostbuster, that is so not unique to Fordham. S was accepted to HC, Nova, Providence and Loyola and they offered absolutely nothing. Fordham was the only school to offer anything, so in my heart I believe it is because they understand the cost of living situation here in New York and because they actually give you credit for sending your other kids to Catholic school. But I agree with you, the whole system is terribly flawed and unfair.</p>
<p>Well said Ghostbuster…I totally agree… 
.The whole system is disheartening to many…We have just entered this crazy mess this year and how eyeopening it is!</p>
<p>gcmom…I appreciate the comments. My point is that favoring kids from catholic schools is blatantly discriminatory. Some schools in the New York metro area charge less than 5k a year for tuition because wealthy alumni keep it down. We have ONE catholic school in our area, its subpar and its tuition is 10k a year. Other private schools are 16k and up. So public school is the only answer if you want to set aside money for college tuition. </p>
<p>The cost of living is less where we live than New York but only because of real estate prices and most New Yorkers and others bought years and years ago before the bubble got huge. </p>
<p>Cost of living in other regions is not that far off from New York. Its tough for all. I am not an expert on financial aid. I just wish we could make it fair for all. I know kids at Fordham on full or 3/4 rides who have more money than they know what to do with. Sure, they had 1400 or higher SATs, but is that really fair? Kids with a 1350 get burned? Come on!</p>
<p>yes, it happens everywhere and not just Fordham. We know that. Not picking on just Fordham. Its going to require federal legislation to fix it and I am not normally a fan of anything coming out of Washington. </p>
<p>Ive been in this financial aid diaspora for three years and counting. And the more stories I hear the more frustrated I get. </p>
<p>And what really burns me up is seeing the tuition increases at Fordham for the last 10 years. Its more than doubled. That is simply outrageous.</p>
<p>The quality of education didnt change (but the students scores went up), and the programs didnt change that much. They are just jacking us and putting it into the kitty. And paying 600k to a basketball coach. fact.</p>
<p>Ghostbuster, I generally agree with almost everything you say but I do take exception to your statement that Fordham favoring kids from Catholic schools as blatantly discriminatory. The amount of the particular Catholic school is irrelevant, whatever it is it is a sacrifice for most families and it may be a wink and a nod to acknowledge that, as it should. My S is a very conservative kid and would not fit into a liberal environment. As a matter of fact, the guidance counselors at my his high school told the kids not to expect admission into the ivies, regardless of their grades and legacy because those are simply not the students they are looking for. I’m pretty sure they have their preferences as well.</p>