I’m a current high school senior worried about the cost of attending college. I’ve already applied EA to Fordham, and was wondering if I would qualify for any of their more generous scholarships.
SAT I: 1490 (780 EBRW/710 Math)
SAT II: 700 Math 1, 740 US History, 740 Literature
ACT: 32 composite (only took it once. again, could be higher because I did very little prep but it’s too late now)
GPA: 4.0/4.0 (I’m not really sure how GPA works at my school vs. other schools. If you have over a 95 they tell you you have a 4.0. Out of 100 I think its a 99.something)
APs: 6 in total
4 on World History
4 on US History
5 on English Lit
Taking Chemistry, English Lang, and European History this year. I know that in total it’s not a lot, but it’s the maximum amount offered at my school.
ECs: involved in a handful of clubs, three sports, I volunteer as a peer tutor during school and I’ve also worked as a tutor outside of school.
Teacher Recs: likely to be very good, I asked my math teacher who is also the moderator of Student Council, and my history teacher who I had for three years. I have a good relationship with both of them.
Counselor Rec: likely to be good as well. We had a very good relationship and she knew my family very well. She also told me that she wrote me a very strong letter.
Hooks: First gen college student
Essay: About growing up as 1st generation Irish American
Applied undecided arts and sciences to Rose Hill
How generous is Fordham with financial aid? When I’m a freshman I’ll have two other siblings in college. My family income varies as my dad works as a contractor. Last year it was ~$150k (just an estimate). We have some property in NY. I’ve been told that my dad’s work as a contractor won’t help for financial aid, as some of his deductible from jobs and contracts might be added back in.
Without a scholarship or some form of financial aid I won’t be able to afford Fordham.
My son who is currently a sophmore received 25k in merit in the form of 2 separate scholarships. His stats were slightly below yours with a 1400 old SAT (M/R). He must maintain a 3.0 and file the fasfa every year to continue to get his awards. Also, he applied EA and was accepted in December, but was not notified of the scholarships until February so don’t panic if you don’t receive anything in December. I believe some others were notified of scholarships in December and then in February were notified of additional merit money. I think Fordham gets so many applications it just takes them a while to sort out all the financials. Hope this helps. I think your stats, ecs and first generation make you a strong candidate for some scholarships. Best of Luck.
@JerseyMomof2Boys Thank you for sharing your experience with the Fordham scholarships. Do you mind clarifying how you think financial need plays into merit scholarships at Fordham? I can see there is a need based component to the deans scholarship and you mentioned that you have to file a FAFSA. Do you sense that your sons scholarship could go up or down in subsequent years based upon need? I typically think of merit as being a fixed amount regardless of need. In our case our need will fluctuate pretty dramatically during the years that we have 1 vs 2 students in college. The Fordham cost of attendance is quite high so we’d need to know which portion of the scholarship is fixed.
I spoke with Fordham last week. My question was did we need to file the CSS profile to be considered for merit (filed FAFSA). They said No but for best merit results we should file it. So I believe there is some type of need component attached to merit.
The Merit Scholarships are guaranteed at that amount for 4 years provided you are a full time student, meet the 3.0 requirement and file the fasfa. I would suppose they could offer different amounts of need financial aid each year depending on your situation, but I haven’t had that scenario. If they tell you it is a merit scholarship, it will not change.