Honors Program

<p>Dr. Nasuti is retiring from being honors director at the end of the academic year :c</p>

<p>Too bad he is retiring. A similar thing happened at Pitt and the honors college has never ever been the same.</p>

<p>anglegrinderman, I suppose what you say is right: everyone’s individual experience will be different. A couple of responses, though…</p>

<p>First, it is true that a few organizations on campus have a large proportion of honors students (a good example, as you mention, is the Debate Society). My point is simply that honors kids tend to be bound by a common elitist perspective of their position at the University, which makes it more difficult (not impossible, but more difficult) for them to appreciate and participate in the larger University community.</p>

<p>Second, we’ll have to agree to disagree on Nasuti’s criteria for selection. Ultimately, it’s a moot point, since he’s retiring at the end of the year.</p>

<p>Finally, I always try to encourage prospective students to avoid using university rankings as much as possible in making their college decision, since they really are such a horrendous measure of academic quality (if you don’t believe me, pick up any copy of the Chronicle of Higher Education, and there will be at least one article about them there). The fact of the matter is that the education a “regular” student receives at Fordham is just as good and as challenging as that which he would receive at any “big name school.” What, then, is the purpose of joining honors from an academic perspective?</p>

<p>My daughter likes the honors core better. I can’t really get into more detail on that, I’d have to ask her. But she said it is much easier to fit in a minor or to double major.</p>

<p>surfer–I guess we’ve just had different experiences with the honors kids. While we might think we’re academically more deserving than, say, Gabelli kids, the elitism doesn’t extend to extracurriculars, at least in the case of the sophomores.</p>

<p>@angle - You add so much to this forum and I agree with just about everything you say and I don’t really want to get into it…but I must say for the record (and as a student not in the honors program) that I do not consider honors students as “academically more deserving” than anyone else at Fordham. IMO, EVERY student at Fordham deserves to and should get a top notch education be they students in the honor program, Gabelli, FCRH, Lincoln Center, full-pay students, students on scholarship, or any other group you care to think of. The honors program is fine as a way to attract, provide scholarships, and challenge students who might not otherwise choose Fordham but that’s about it.</p>

<p>I’m very seriously considering Fordham and really want to make the right decision in accepting the invite to the honors program at Rose Hill. What are the classes like? Also, I am aware that gabelli honors students do very well in terms of internships and job placement. How do the FCRH honors students compare?</p>

<p>As a prospective student who had the fortunate (or, under surferdude09’s depiction, fortunate) chance of being one of the few to be selected to the honors program at Rose Hill as well as meet Dr. Nasuti through the “Experience Fordham” program, I can attest that a lot of the honors students enjoy both his company and the program. My host, my quasi-host (she toured me around Arthur Ave when my host came down with the flu), and the rest of the honors kids all encouraged me to join (they were freshmen). I will have to concede that I would tell that the honors kids were very close-knit with each other, yet I also knew that one of the freshman honors students was in track. Also, when I was staying with my host during my visit that he had no problems with his roommate, a non-honors student (he said that they would be dorming with each other next year)</p>

<p>When I met Dr. Nasuti, he spoke that he was trying to find students who would be the ones to command in-class discussions and be active in the classroom. He claimed that he had to reject three 1600/1600 SAT students from the program because he did not feel that they would be good fits for the program (if it means anything, I am also a 1600 student, but got accepted). After we met him, the other three students that were with the prospective honors mini-cohort all thought that Dr. Nasuti’s description of a typical honors student coincide with their own self-beliefs He also pointed out that the 36 students who entered into this freshman class are all still in the program. So in a way, both surferdude09 and anglegrinderman are right. Dr. Nasuti’s selection process is not purely GPA and SAT related, but still do focus on academics. It is subjective, but I would not venture to say arbitrary.</p>

<p>Those are just my first impressions, but, considering that I am the target audience of the conversation, I felt I needed to throw in my 2 cents.</p>

<p>@spirit—Never said we are academically more deserving, only that we indulge ourselves with thinking so once in a while :D</p>

<p>I think you’re talking “deserving” as what people should get as humans and as members of the Fordham community—perfectly good criteria—and I mean it in terms of meritocratic institutions’ and cultures’ implicit correlation between effort and reward. Tomayto, tomahto…</p>

<p>Is there a prevailing politically conservative and/or religious sentiment in the program, or is most everyone different from everyone else? </p>

<p>And a question on the general Fordham population: is there a general Catholic school atmosphere/have most students attended Catholic high- or prep-schools?</p>

<p>I only ask because I don’t fit any of those criteria and I come from a community where Catholics seem to be shaped by a very strict mold.</p>

<p>@mongo: Both honors and non-honors kids in my year are politically and religiously diverse. But there’s a definite Catholic-school feel. I’m not Catholic and came from a public high school, but I chose Fordham in part because of the strong Catholic presence on campus.</p>

<p>One would hope that Fordham, of all places, would have a “general Catholic school atmosphere”…</p>

<p>You answered my question, but I’m afraid I wasn’t quite clear. I meant Catholic prep-school feel, not Jesuit University atmosphere; the latter is what drew me to Fordham. I was just wondering because, where I live, there’s a lot of Catholic high-school elitism.</p>

<p>@Onceuponatime914</p>

<p>As a Sophomore Global Business Honors Program (GBHP) Student, I would just like to tell you that I came to Fordham because they I was captivated by the value proposition GBHP was offering me (small cohort of extra curricular/academically fantastic students, access to the Deans and the best professors, study abroad tours paid for by Gabelli) and I have not been let down. </p>

<p>The Gabelli School of Business is full of pretty bright kids, but GBHP is comprised of students who have been accepted into Ivys and other top institutions, and I have been blown away by the network I have access to through GBHP. Despite the program being relatively young we already have GBHP graduates at Google, Apple, Goldman Sachs, Nomura, Time Warner Cable… (the list goes on), and GBHP students are always looking to help other GBHP students: I just obtained a summer internship with Johnson & Johnson with the help of a GBHP Senior who has a full-time offer there.</p>

<p>Just yesterday I returned from Santiago, Chile, where Fordham took the Sophomore and Junior classes to spend Spring Break. It was a trip of a lifetime: not only did we get to explore Santiago, but Fordham arranged for business meetings with C-Level employees at some of the biggest firms in Chile, as well as a visit to their Central Bank!! The Santiago trip is one of 3 study abroad opportunities Fordham provides for GBHP students, taking you to London & Paris in your Freshman year and China in your Junior year.</p>

<p>As you have been accepted into GBHP you are undoubtedly very bright and have offers from other Universities that may be ranked higher than Fordham; however, the opportunities to be a “big fish” in a relatively “small pond” make GBHP and unbelievably attractive program for anyone who receives an offer. </p>

<p>If you’d like to contact me visit my page: [Ross</a> Garlick - New York, NY, Student, Founder, FURI Rental, Fordham University, Manchester Grammar School | about.me](<a href=“http://www.about.me/ross.garlick]Ross”>Ross Garlick - New York, NY, Fordham University, Manchester Grammar School | about.me)</p>

<p>@rossgarlick</p>

<p>Thank you for shedding some light on the program. The more I hear about it, the more I think of what a great opportunity it is and its causing me to lean very heavily towards choosing Fordham</p>