<p>Speaking as a parent </p>
<p>First of all, you need a variety of schools. Safety, Match, Reach. Fordham is one of those schools that will fall into one of these categories, almost no matter what your grades/scores are.</p>
<p>School ranking – it matters some. If two schools are within … say 5 spots of each other … almost not at all. If there’s a … say 20 spot difference in rankings or greater, I’d think you’d want to have a good reason to take the lower ranked school. However, there are many reasons – finances comes to mind right away; excellent specific program at the lower ranked school; program not great at the higher ranked school; you absolutely hate the higher ranked school, etc. If the difference in rankings is as great as 40 spots, I’d think you would need a compelling reason to choose the lower ranked school – I can’t afford it or they don’t offer what I want to study.</p>
<p>Absent a good reason – if two schools are at different tiers, you almost can’t go wrong choosing the higher tiered school. The reputation will give you greater flexibility if you change your mind about what you want do do in life. It’s not stuck up. To a certain degree, reputation of the school you go to matters to employers, grad schools, etc. Which is not to say that you can’t get into excellent grad programs from any school, just that your chances may be greater from a better school.</p>
<p>Fordham’s biology ranking – this seems low. I’d find out why (or what it means to be ranked this low). Maybe it’s nothing, maybe very significant.</p>