So, I’m unfortunately going into Fordham this fall with the intention of transferring out. Sorry. 
I have a guaranteed transfer to Cornell, so right now it looks like I’m going to be going there sophomore year. But I thought, since I’m going to be transferring out anyway, I might as well try my luck with a few schools better than Cornell - particularly Columbia and Penn. To get to the point, I want to attain as high a GPA as possible at Fordham. I’m in Gabelli and my major is finance. Could any current student comment on how difficult it is to get a 3.9 or 4.0? Thanks.
A lot easier than it is at Cornell 
Sorry, but posts like this dont deserve the effort to respond. Good luck.
@sovereigndebt Oh? Was I too indelicate? Have I broken an unspoken rule? May I extend my sincerest apologies, then, for wanting to go to the best school I can. The only “effort” I ask is a word or two on how difficult Fordham is so I can have a good idea how much time and energy I will need to delegate to my studies this year. If that offends you… good luck to you too.
My daughter had a friend who did the same thing, was in Gabelli for freshman year with the guarantee transfer to Cornell in sophomore year. He did it. Believe me, you can do it. Gabelli is pretty easy (unless you’re in accounting, that’s hard from what I understand).
@Baloney1011 you are full of…well…baloney. 
You just proved my point. Thanks.
Here is your response, though your attitude doesnt really deserve one.
Fordham overall is an academic school. Everyone at Fordham is required to fulfill the core requirements. Getting a 3.9 at Fordham is not easy in any school, particularly freshmen year.
Some students try to game the system and take easy classes and easy professors to jack their gpa’s. Some students embrace difficult classes (content) and difficult professors (discernment and writing skills) and benefit in immeasurable ways that a superficial gpa doesnt represent.
I get that people recognize job searches are highly competitive and getting the best internship and job often depends on gpa’s…it does. But employers are not stupid and look at content. Many know Fordham very well and know what are strong classes and what are not. And many use the recommendations of professors, who usually pick the best students (hardest working) to mentor.
Every student who comes to Fordham should come prepared to work hard, embrace the core and do their best in whatever major they eventually select. To be a part of the Fordham landscape by giving back to Fordham while there, through clubs, and service. And to give back when they leave Fordham.
There are many people who unfortunately didnt get into Fordham who would LOVE to be at Fordham. There are people at Fordham who DID get into an Ivy and turned it down to attend Fordham (usually a scholarship is involved).
I dont have a whole lotta time for people trying to transfer out of Fordham because they somehow think its not good enough for their career aspirations and some higher ranking school is better. Often people like that come to Fordham and dont have a realistic view and are disappointed in their grades then get bitter and start trashing Fordham.
Dance with the one who brung ya, my mother used to say. Be grateful to be at Fordham. Do well and rise to the top of your class, give back, cultivate friends and mentors and wear the Fordham maroon with pride. The grass is not always greener btw.
Some kids transfer because they picked the wrong school for the wrong reasons and its a poor fit for them. I get that as well. It happens. But its fairly rare.
My kid’s friends got into some pretty prestigious schools. They all went through their freshmen blues and threatened to bolt in January…but they all remained, worked hard, overcame obstacles, sickness and dorm drama and at the end of the day, they all graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Fordham. One from Gabelli.
Some went on to prestigious graduate schools, including Ivy League. Some went to law school. That Fordham diploma carries some pretty strong weight.
My D is an accounting and finance major at Gabellii and has worked very hard to maintain a high GPA. She has a 40 hr per week paid internship this summer with one of the big four. She works with students from Cornell, Seton Hall, Ramapo College, Bucknell and many other colleges. I’ve always believed that it’s not so much what college you go to but what you do when you get there. @baloney1011 your attitude is very abrasive and condescending. A high GPA will only get you so far. A positive attitude and how you present yourself to others are just as important as what school your attend and your GPA. You are young and still learning about the world. I can tell you that you will catch more bees with honey than with vinegar! Listen more, talk less and always have a positive attitude to go along with that high GPA that you are striving for! Good luck to you.
Here are my comments:
- With the guaranteed transfer deal with Cornell I think that my friend only needed to keep up a 3.0 so assuming that is still the case and assuming you work hard you should be fine there.
- Columbia doesn’t have an undergraduate b-school so if you are in Gabelli and want business I’m not sure why Columbia would be a preferred option (assuming you have the Cornell transfer into Dyson).
- If you are transferring after your freshman year colleges will still look at your HS transcript and standardized test scores. I’m not sure how many transfers Wharton takes but it probably is very tough to transfer in no matter what your GPA first semester at Fordham is. If you want to take a shot at it, feel free.
- Fordham is not an easy school but good grades can be had with hard work. Still it is unreasonable to ask anyone here to predict how you will do. Getting a guaranteed transfer into Cornell does not mean you will automatically get all A’s at Fordham.
- I suggest you keep quiet about your plans to transfer once you get to Fordham so you will have an opportunity to make friends and enjoy your time there.
And for the record…
I have no issue with someone coming to Fordham for a year knowing they have the guaranteed transfer to Cornell. Two of my friends got into that program at Cornell (one went to Cornell and one actually stayed at the school she started at because she was so happy there). In order to fulfill the requirements to transfer students MUST attend college for their freshman year, take certain courses, and maintain a certain GPA. If a student chooses to attend Fordham for freshman year that is his or her choice and I would hope that they enjoy a great year at the school. With the guaranteed transfer in mind, a student can stay away from some of the difficult (at least for me) core classes like philosophy/theology and just take is needed to fulfill the transfer requirements.
@MomTheChauffer Thank you, that’s helpful. Do you know what your daughter’s friend majored in?
@sovereigndebt I’ve always been subject to disapproval on this board because of some of my unorthodox views on college and college applications, and because I’m very blunt. So let me be blunt. I don’t know what you are trying to prove or demonstrate. Not once did I suggest that Fordham is somehow an inferior school. There are easy Ivy’s and there are easy community colleges, and there are hard Ivy’s and hard community colleges, and ALL I asked is where Fordham falls on the spectrum of difficulty. Difficulty is not an indicator of how “good” a college is.
And if you “dont have a whole lotta time for people trying to transfer out of Fordham,” why on Earth did you reply in the first place? If you truly believe that Fordham is so great, you shouldn’t feel the need to write a defensive essay about it. And there’s no doubt about it - Fordham is a great school, but I want to transfer to Cornell, and to be upset about that is beyond preposterous.
@walkbyfaith8 I agree that one can achieve the same in life with a degree from Fordham, Cornell, or Harvard, but the more prestigious a college is (of course “prestige” has nothing to do with how “good” a college is, only how it is viewed), the more benefits a degree from that college will bring me in the next 50 years, and consequently, the less (on average) will I have to work to be in the same place as someone who went to a less prestigious college. Of course anyone can bring up anecdotal evidence of billionaires who didn’t finish high school or groundbreaking scientists with no degrees, but it’s exactly that - anecdotal - and on average a more prestigious degree lends more advantages. Why else would it be considered more prestigious? That’s why I want to go to Cornell, and there is nothing wrong with my thought process as many on here would have me believe. My personality isn’t at all abrasive, but I asked an innocent question and a poster came in and dismissed it as unworthy.
@spirit77 I need a 3.5 because the major I’m transferring to is AEM. I’m also not dead-set on studying business, I just want to go to a prestigious school, which, for my future career (in finance), is unfortunately all that matters for getting on a good career path. So I would be more than happy with doing econ at Columbia or HYP. And, yes, I absolutely agree - advertising transfer plans on campus is distasteful.
@Baloney1011 Not too sure but I can ask. I don’t know if she even knew, just that he was Gabelli and he may have been in the honors program. I know a few of her friends are in Gabelli Honors.
@MomTheChauffer It’s okay, you don’t have to ask, but thanks!
To give you a straight answer – it will depend on how good an all-around student you are, perhaps on how good you are at math and macro, and how distractible you are. Gabelli students have a core to deal with, so must demonstrate strength in humanities/pihilosophy, as well as have considerably more math as freshmen than at many other schools. Note, too, that Fordham has an A. A minus, B plus, B, etc., scale, so that “all As” may mean a lower GPA than elsewhere - receiving a 3.9 may mean no A minuses, depending on the number of units you have registered for – didn’t do the math mayself. So, the question isn’t really, how “hard” Fordham is – it is, rather, what kind of student are you? And no one here has the answer to that. As a general matter, because of the cirriculum and the student population, Fordham is considerably more demanding than many other well-respected university business/pre-business programs.
The simple answer here is to go to the Gabelli school and ask for a placement record, that is, where graduates have been placed after graduation. Fordham has a long and respected reputation on WallStreet with all of the major investment banks, and increasingly with major hedgefunds. Principals from those firms as well as wallstreet law firms sit on the board of trustees at Fordham.
I state again, simply seeking prestige for prestige sake, seems to me to be silly, cynical and sad. I understand that there is a perception that only Ivy students get hired on wallstreet. That is a false perception. It is true that people with a Harvard MBA have a leg up on getting that plum job at JPMorgan or Goldman, for example, than some kid from Hofstra. But once you are hired, if you dont perform and make money for clients, you are gone. That requires a lot of intelligence, depth of knowledge, brass knuckles (rhetorical), stomach of steel, steely determination and a lot of EQ…that savoir faire of office politics…regardless where you went to school. There are very very successful people on wallstreet who went to Fordham, Syracuse, Delaware, BU and many other schools that are not Ivy or NYU-Stern.
Sometimes being blunt and forceful can be an attribute and help you. Sometimes it can be a serious career impediment. It takes a wise owl to know the difference.
I don’t think the OP needs to talk with Fordham’s career placement she he/she fully expects to transfer to Cornell sophomore year. As much as I love Fordham, I can’t fault anyone for taking advantage of an acceptance into the guaranteed transfer program at Cornell.