My son Jack was accepted to both Northeastern and Fordham’s Global Business Honors Program. He will study international business with a concentration in Finance. Both programs seem amazing and he faces a great, difficult decision.
Beyond being admitted into their honors program, Fordham has provided $12.5K in merit aid per year for 4 years, and $7K in needs based aid for the first year. Northeastern has only provided $5.5K in loans per year. So, Northeastern is roughly $70K per year and Fordham is roughly $58K.
My son has 16 AP Exam credit hours already and expects to hit the 32 AP Exam credit hour limit. So, hopefully this can lower costs.
He visited Northeastern with his mom both before he applied and for their admitted student’s day a couple weekends ago. He loved it. Jack and I will be visiting Fordham for the first time during their admitted student’s day this Friday.
I’m hopeful some current or recent students or parents thereof from these two great programs can weigh in with some feedback on what sets each program apart. As best I can tell, one key decision is between Fordham’s honors program and Northeastern’s incredible co-op program.
My daughter has an option of Fordham’s GBHP so I’m interested in the info you get. When you go to Fordham get them to do a check of his transcript. They were not as willing to take my daughter’s AP classes for credit as we had hoped. There is no waiving out of history or an English writing course for anyone, But GBHP students do not take a foreign language or science.
Such different experiences. Fordhams Jesuit core and service culture. Nice campus in what used to be a real tough neck of the woods. It is a bit more interesting now. Also access to Manhattan and Brooklyn is awesome too. It’s a more traditional college and campus. And the honors college is a big perq.
NEU is a hot name right now. It has the great academics and co op internships that are core to its mission. It’s in America’s college town. Great pro sports and a much more manageable city. It’s also more money.
So I think it’s a really good set of options. Both different enough to offer real choice.
Socially in think Fordham will be a bit more cohesive without the coop breaks and a bit more campus oriented.
Funny, S17’s best friend is a finance major and his final two were Fordham and NEU. He’s a happy sophomore at NEU, on co-op this semester but still staying on campus.
Fordham was more of an after thought for him, but their accepted student day really impressed. He was not offered honors, but it was significantly less than NEU. In the end, he loved Boston.
Agree with above - definitely more of a traditional campus, college feel to Fordham. Both great locations for internships. Hopefully your visit will make it more clear!
We visited Fordham and prearranged a visit with Assoc Dean Brian Dunn who runs the honors program. We arrived a couple minutes early and Dean Rapaccioli popped out of her office to warmly and graciously welcome my son and me.
Mr. Dunn spent 45 minutes with us and answered all our questions with genuine answers. Their program is very impressive and realizing great success in garnering a strong reputation with employers throughout NYC and beyond as multiple internships now flip from one honors program student to the next.
I am 100% confident that my son would have a strong and valuable experience at Fordham in their Gabelli business school honors program.
He has a very tough decision to make in the next 3 days and I wish I had been on that visit to Northeastern!
I appreciate the input provided and will certainly review anything more that is posted prior to his decision which I will report back.
Such an exciting, important, and expensive in terms of time and money decision for my son! I feel relieved that his twin sister had an obvious and easy decision to make.
Closing the loop, my son chose Fordham. And even as I originally thought that NYC wouldn’t be a good location to earn an undergraduate degree the on campus visit changed my mind and I expect my son will take full advantage of both Fordham and the city around him.
My son shared that he spoke with a friend of a friend who is a senior there now and she spoke highly of all the opportunities that Fordham and NYC afforded her. She has job offers from multiple top consulting firms. And she spoke highly of Gabelli’s finance program and the honors program to which he was accepted.
I’m proud and I’m excited and I look forward to watching him learn, grow, and find a good career through Fordham.
Thanks for sharing your decision. My son has also decided to commit to Gabelli (Lincoln Center) class of 2023. I did an incredible amount of research, including calling many NYC based corporate friends, and the program seems to be well regarded. Also, apparently the alumni connection is uniquely strong and extends to other Jesuit unis as well. Jesuits look out for their fellow alums.
(Full disclosure: he was just offered a spot at University of Washington, but I’m going to start another thread on that. Don’t think it will change the decision.)