<p>I'm going to be the first in my family to go to college. Both my parents are immigrants and are barely literate with their own language let alone English. So, I am expecting very little help from my parents when the college application process begins. I just have a question about the financial aid at Fordham. I've read over their merit based aid and am wondering if full tuition is only available to Freshmen. What I mean is, I understand that you can renew them every year, but let's say I do not qualify for full tuition my first year, is there a possibility that if I maintain stellar grades my sophomore year, I would be eligible for full tuition? This would be the same for Junior and Senior year. To make a long question short, is full tuition a one shot deal, meaning, if I don't get it my first try while applying and entering Freshmen year, I won't get it ever?</p>
<p>The general rule and an almost absolute rule is that the scholarship sweepstakes at Fordham (and everywhere else) is completed when you apply as a freshman. Its based significantly upon your ACT/SAT score, with GPA and classrank and in some cases minority status (i.e. National Hispanic Scholar status). If you don’t get a substantial scholarship freshman year, its likely not going to happen later, even if you get straight A’s freshman year at Fordham. That is the bad news.</p>
<p>BUT…there is good news. Submit the CSS and FAFSA and what Fordham may not do with scholarships, they can do with grant money from the university. Its not as prestigious, but its essentially coming from the general funds and has the same effect of reducing the amount you have to pay. Then student loans and sometimes work/study can make up the rest. Pell Grants and other outside sources can also help. Some people of relatively high middle class incomes can get “gapped”, so it does happen. </p>
<p>Further, if you do extremely well as a Freshman at Fordham, then there are small funds available to provide assistance, but they are from some departments and are not significant, i.e. just a few thousand dollars. </p>
<p>Fordham does a very good job of tapping outstanding students who perform well into special honors programs in some departments and these are the perks offered to them for performing well. </p>
<p>Its the sad truth about college admissions, that the game is wrapped around the much criticized SAT scores of students. Don’t even get me started on that. But it is the only realy objective score, faulty as it is, for a school to measure your likely performance and reward/recruit top students. When so many students come in with super high GPA’s and class ranks, they must then separate them by SAT scores. And some schools are soft on grading making it hard for a college to judge true intellectual endeavor. </p>
<p>In short, all applications are reviewed for scholarship potential at Fordham based on SAT scores (ACT), gpa, class rank and some extracurriculars/other factors but generally require an SAT of 1400/1600 scale. So it is imperative that you submit the CSS and FAFSA for financial aid in order to get any grant money and student loans. </p>
<p>I can assure you that if you perform extremely well at Fordham, you will be noticed by faculty. There are a very few program specific scholarships for upperclassmen (such as in journalism). But graduating at the top of your class at Fordham (they rank students), you will be afforded outstanding opportunities for internships, jobs, graduate schools etc. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>From what I have seen, scholarships are given out to freshmen and are good for 4 years if they maintain a 3.0 cumulative average. I don’t think you should count on getting additional scholarship money later on - it may happen (I don’t know) but I think it is rare.</p>