so... ghetto.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Fordham University
1

<p>i was so disappointed today. this school is in the ghetto. in terra/nova, there are bars all over the windows.</p>

<p>i can't believe off campus housing doesn't come with internet or laundry. we're STUDENTS. obviously we need internet for researching or at least to keep up with emails/myfordham.</p>

<p>this is ridiculous.</p>

<p>also, the doubles in terra/nova are TINY and if you get stuck bunking, you can't sit up on the top bunk without hitting your head on the ceiling.</p>

<p>i feel gross enough with the current situation, but from what i hear, there are students who have it way worse on campus. apparently some students who were doubling were forced to triple by moving yet another bed into the same tiny room. parents are ****ed that they're spending this much money for their kids to be put through this.</p>

<p>i understand new york real estate is expensive, but seriously, if that is the case, don't accept so many people. or if they were counting on a certain percentage not to show up, they really need to re-work whatever formula they are using.</p>

<p>i almost want to move back home, but if a reasonable financial aid appeal comes through, i will try to stick it out.</p>

<p>i am judging based on the off campus belmont community housing (i wasn't able to go on campus yet because for some reason they didn't have my ID made yet), and am hoping when i visit the actual RH campus tomorrow it won't be as underwhelming.</p>

2

<p>Viirgo, I don’t know anything about off campus housing and I know very little about Rose Hill for that matter. But I think what you are going through is very common. I know it’s hard but try not to make any judgments yet and just go with the flow. I’m sorry you are disappointed in your housing and while I’m sure there are things that Fordham could probably do to improve the situation, I’m equally as sure that you will adjust to this in time. I think we all (new students and their parents) have built up this idea of Fordham in our head and for the money we are paying we expect Fordham to live up to it. And the truth is that it probably won’t. But that doesn’t mean that we won’t absolutely love Fordham and be thrilled with the education. </p>

<p>Give it time. It doesn’t feel like home yet but eventually it will and all the quirks that come with college housing are likely to be a bonding experience for you and those that you live with. Eventually you will learn to laugh at those things that you find so aggravating now. You might even find that you actually miss them them once your gone. Have a great year!!! :)</p>

3

<p>Fordham’s neighborhood is one of the best aspects of the school. Calling it the “ghetto” is both offensive and misleading. The Belmont and Fordham neighborhoods are rich with economic, ethnic, and religious diversity. It’s not a sterile, white upper class neighborhood. It’s a real place where Fordham students can become connected to people different from themselves. The cultural activities, the endless streets of shopping, and the incredible ethnic foods all define the area around Fordham as a place I’m thrilled to call my home.</p>

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<p>LOL. What did you expect, viirgo? A southern finishing school? Urban schools arent for everyone, granted, but its not like someone hoodood you and told you Fordham was in the middle of a lush garden. (well, actually the New York Botanical Gardens are across the street and are FREE to students on Wednesdays! as well as the Bronx Zoo…which is also very nice.) </p>

<p>Part of the college experience is learning to adapt and compromise and mature. Belmont is eclectic, and yes, there is periodic crime in the Bronx. But many Fordham students are involved in Bronx community activities and embrace it. </p>

<p>Jesuit colleges, if you noticed, are typically inner city schools. One notable exception is Santa Clara University. (BC is in a suburb of Boston, as well) But otherwise, the 28 Jesuit schools are all inner city. There are other famous schools inner city as well: USC, Duke, UChicago, Johns Hopkins.</p>

<p>In time you will adjust and learn to love your setting. If you don’t you can request on campus housing and perhaps an opening will occur in January for spring semester, or next year. </p>

<p>Once campus classes start, you will be on campus a good deal of the time. Make friends in your classes. </p>

<p>Its all going to be okay. Just relax.</p>

5

<p>This is insulting. The Bronx is not a ghetto. There are bars over the windows? Go to the Upper West Side and you’ll see them there too. The doubles are small? Be thankful you’re not in Martyr’s, on campus. </p>

<p>If you’re going to be a Fordham student you’re going to learn to love the Bronx and the Belmont community. It’s an essential part of coming to college here. Throw out all of your fears and your biases and immerse yourself into this new environment. Some students don’t learn this lesson, but you really can’t get the full Fordham education if you keep reinforcing your own fears of the Bronx. This is a wonderful place. Learn to love it.</p>

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<p>viirgo - your complaints are not ott as some may have you believe. Keep beating the drum - Fordham has plenty of money to spend and they SHOULD spend some of it on their students. </p>

<p>While we are making requests…I wish SOMEONE would care enough to get the elevator fixed in Alumni South. Chilling…</p>

<p>I would not recommend the Fordham experience.</p>

7

<p>Ho hum. First of all, no school is perfect. We have friends all over the place at some very prestigious schools (much higher ranking than Fordham is presently) and I can tell you anecdotally, there are complaints there about this or that, dorm drama, cafeteria food, can’t sign up for classes they want, insensitive professors…the usual complaints. </p>

<p>Second, while I agree that imperfections and problems need to be addressed and fixed, that learning to deal with dilemmas and annoyances is part of growing up…because no job is perfect either. Employers want to hire kids with a “can do” spirit, not a person who is a whiner and complainer and has negative karma. </p>

<p>The best solution for you sally is to be a force of positive change. Go to facilities management yourself and ask them to fix the elevator. Go to anyone in the administration. Be pleasant and direct, but never rude. Join clubs, join committees. Get involved. </p>

<p>Yes, its a culture shock at first. Coming from the suburbs or some other place in the country, its not “home”. Embrace the diversity and the challenges. Fordham will be your home for the next 4 years, make the most of it. Write a letter to the Ram. Join the Ram. </p>

<p>Then focus on your studies and what is most important. Happy and contented people learn to fix things or to deal with things they can’t fix and move along, learning from the experience. </p>

<p>The elevator will be fixed. But this is not the place to vent that frustration. </p>

<p>Best of luck…and smile!</p>

8

<p>okay update.</p>

<p>i have experienced the actual rose hill campus, and i agree that it is a very nice campus.</p>

<p>i was beginning to adapt to my current situation for the first couple of days, even through the tossing and turning and sweating due to no air conditioning (now why would that be necessary? says fordham). i’m a very skinny person and i hardly ever sweat, and usually when everyone else is hot, i’m comfortable or even cold. that taken into consideration, i’ve been DRENCHED the past two nights. fans don’t help that much.</p>

<p>but honestly, i was willing to forgive the situation and just wait until the cooler season rolls in. but of course just as i’m getting over one thing, it’s another. you guessed it. BED BUGS.</p>

<p>before i moved across the country to attend fordham, i remember hearing all the hubbub about the big bedbug scare of NYC. of course i chuckled to myself and thought oh great, am i sure i want to go there?</p>

<p>but no, it’s a reality. i woke up today with little itchy bumps all over my ankles and legs. i know they’re not from mosquitos, they’re different. and a relative who had them in the past told me to check the sheets for small black specks that could be bedbug feces. sure enough, there they were. i checked and saw them on my room mate’s bed also.</p>

<p>i called reslife today to report it, and their usual lackadaisical sounding woman answered the phone, took down my house/dorm/room information, asked if i had a screen on my windows, which i do… took my phone number, and said that someone would call me.</p>

<p>it is now evening and i still have yet to receive a call.</p>

<p>how am i going to sleep tonight, you ask? i guess a few more bites can’t hurt. it builds character.</p>

<p>my relative said that i should at least need to encase the mattress so the bugs will not be able to escape at night, and to wash the sheets in very hot water in order to kill any remaining eggs. oh yeah, that’s right, i don’t have a laundry facility.</p>

<p>now keep this in mind, i received the same congratulations letter as everyone else, that i would be offered fordham housing. never was i or my family warned that ::</p>

<p>a) it would be off campus housing (ok, i understand overflow happens, but:)
b) you’re on your own when it comes to amenities such as laundry, internet, ac (you actually aren’t allowed to have an AC unless you have a DOCTORS note AND $350)
c) once you’re shoved into off campus housing, you get to sleep on bug infested mattresses because fordham bottom line doesn’t give a shh about their off campus housing. if they did, then once the big news broke out months ago, they would have been ON this.</p>

<p>i could go on about a few other departments but i really need to wrap this up. in closing, i really, really wanted to love this experience. you don’t know how happy i was originally to come here. but so far it has just been one big fail after another. for now i am extremely, extremely, disappointed. and itchy.</p>

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<p>Lots of schools are having problems with bed bug infestations. Harder to get rid of than they look.</p>

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<p>This thread made me laugh.</p>

<p>Lesson: Visit the campus before you decide to attend. Especially if you are prone to looking down on less than wealthy-looking surroundings.</p>

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<p>in my case, visiting the campus wouldn’t have alerted me to any of the concerns i have addressed, because all of the differences are between living in on-campus or off-campus housing. </p>

<p>in my case i found out at the last minute that i would be placed in off-campus housing. it’s basically overflow. but it’s a world of difference between the two. (on campus dorms provide ac, laundry, internet, even dining.) and because it is on campus, all of the problems would be right in everyone’s face who decides to tour, so of course they’re going to be “on it” more. a lot of people aren’t even aware of terra/nova.</p>

<p>as for being “prone to looking down on less than wealthy-looking surroundings” you’re probably assuming i’m some uppity white spoiled child who thinks that living in the city is beneath me. i’m a minority and i come from an extremely modest background, arriving at fordham based on talent alone. that said, i can call it like i see it. ghetto is ghetto. your logic is flawed. that’s the weakest and most annoying argument when people use the “just because something isn’t white, it must be black” formula. there are shades of gray that exist between. just because i think the terra/nova dorms are pretty ghetto doesn’t mean i’m an extremely high maintenance person.</p>

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<p>Sorry about the Bed Bugs. Ohio has it worse than NYC. Every major city in Ohio is infested. The environmentalists banned DDT years ago and that is what was once a small problem is now a bad problem. There were bed bugs at Wake Forest.</p>

<p>If you took housing and didnt confirm what dorm it was in immediately, then all I can say is ask before you arrive. I think you are a transfer student, correct? </p>

<p>Take your sheets to one of the dorms on campus. Ask a friend if you can use their washing machines, use super hot water. </p>

<p>Go to reslife tomorrow and DEMAND they treat your apartment, since its university owned. Go to the local CVS drugstore yourself and get something to treat the problem there. </p>

<p>email fr. mcshane or other administrators about your problem tonight and put URGENT in the message line. make sure you put a method for them to reach you during the day, like a cell number. </p>

<p>If all else fails, call Fordham Security and demand they do something about it. </p>

<p>THINK! Venting here wont solve your problem, though it might be cathartic for you.</p>

<p>Call the Dean’s Office and tell them that you are prepared to withdraw and go home (full tuition refund in the first two weeks, its their policy) if they dont fix it now.</p>

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<p>Sally, why would you not recommend the fordham experience? Because the elevator is broken? </p>

<p>Viirgo, I do hope the bedbug situation gets resolved soon. There are several coin laundries in the belmont area.</p>

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<p>as someone who also transferred and is living in belmont community housing i feel like i need to address your issues. i too was disappointed with no internet or cable but we were able to get that up within the first week. </p>

<p>I transferred from a school in nyc who had a huge problem with bed bugs and addressed it very slowly. Unfortunately bed bugs are quite common in nyc, i understand why you would be upset but try to look at the positives.</p>

<p>The community isn’t the greatest but i am focusing on the amazing campus and the great education i am receiving. your experience is what you make out of it. i wasn’t really happy at my previous school but i am sure happy now at fordham</p>

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<p>Welcome DoorsRule! Glad you see the value of a Fordham education. Hopefully things improve for everyone. What happened to Virrgo? Did she bolt and go home? Or hang in there and find a “cure?”</p>

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<p>Jeez, my (12th gr) dau visited Fordham this summer & got all excited about the place. It is dismaying to a parent to hear abt a bedbug problem. </p>

<p>I suggest getting some plastic sheeting, the kind hardware stores sell as dropcloths, and “gift wrapping” the mattress in it. Use duct tape to seal all the seams completely. Also a plastic pillow cover – you can buy them at Walmart, etc. Then over the pillow cover, use a white zippered pillow slip, and then your colored pillowcase, and change those frequently. Keep your clothes in plastic boxes (and keep them shut!). Of course, over the plastic wrapped mattress, you will put a mattress pad, which you will wash often in hot water. </p>

<p>No rugs other than a machine-washable throw type, and wash it often. Vacuum a lot, too, with a stick vac. </p>

<p>We did this for my oldest dau when she went to camps, summer programs, and univ because of her asthma & the dust mite issue. </p>

<p>This plastic and box-up action won’t rid an apt of bedbugs, but it will help to keep the place bug-unfriendly. For riddance, I have heard good things about the guys who bring in dogs to sniff out the bugs, then spray a very cold fog into all the nooks & crannies & it kills the bugs. Hotels use this method & they have a lot to lose if they don’t deal with the issue promptly. </p>

<p>Ranting about DDT no longer being in use won’t help. All insect species eventually grow immune to all pesticides if they are overused. If we went back to spraying DDT all over the place, we would eventually have top spray more & more and then it wouldn’t work on various species, which is just what happened in the first place. Not to mention the near extinction of birds of prey like eagles, DDT in breast milk, etc.</p>

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<p>Its not “ranting about DDT no longer being in use.” Its a fact. I read that in a New York Times article, by the way. </p>

<p>Bed bugs were mentioned by one student who is from the west coast, and is a transfer student, who are all admitted late in the season and is using off campus apartment housing. Its not a problem at Fordham, not even at the Manhattan Lincoln Center campus, where the majority of hotels are located and where the problem has been most acute.</p>

<p>There is not a problem with bedbugs at either the Rose Hill or Lincoln Center campuses. </p>

<p>I am not suggesting going back to spraying with DDT. I am merely saying there is a direct relationship between the banning of DDT and the increase of some pests around the world. Your position on the environment is duly noted, but this is not a forum for arguing about the effects of DDT, or other pesticides. Its only a forum about answering students questions. And sometimes kids bring problems like this to the wrong place, as if CC were some clearinghouse for resolving individual or personal problems at a student’s school. Its not. We did however try and direct the student to sources for resolution.</p>

<p>I won’t characterize your lengthy commentary about the environment as a “rant.” I would appreciate you not characterizing my comments as a “rant” either. </p>

<p>If your daughter applies to Fordham this fall, best of luck. Its a fine school academically, socially and professionally. Its not Shangri La or perfect. No school is. </p>

<p>And I suspect that the student involved in the original comment that resulted in this thread within a thread, has resolved her issue since she has not posted in a week or so. Perhaps she found on campus housing. I don’t really know.</p>

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<p>As far as I have heard there has not been a bedbug problem in Fordham’s on-campus housing (Keeping my fingers crossed that will remain the case). I was told that the plastic coated mattresses that are used on campus do help. For allergy reasons we use a dust mite protective plastic cover for my S which wraps around the mattress and zips closed. I think isn’t a bad idea for everyone to do.
In terms of the off-campus housing, I was sorry to hear that Fordham does not provide internet, cable and laundry machines. The Fordham website clearly states that the off campus housing “offers similar services and benefits as those offered within the on-campus housing program” and they seem to charge accordingly.</p>

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<p>yeah for on campus housing the bed bug issue is not a problem because of the protective plastic coverings on the bed.</p>

<p>i also saw a lot of freshmen this year while i was helping with move in use bed bug spray or put a special bed bug mattress pad on, which i personally think was unnecessary but to each his own.</p>

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<p>Nobody is immune to a potential bedbug infestation. If Fordham’s off campus housing is infested, bedbugs appearing on campus is just as likely given that residents do come to campus and sit in classrooms and the library and the bugs travel so well. And they don’t just have to come from off campus residents either…ANYONE who goes to the movies or travels or does just about anything else can bring them in. But Fordham is not the only campus susceptible and it has nothing to do with how well any of their facilities are maintained.</p>

<p>The reemergence of the bedbug problem has led to some serious paranoia and a whole new industry. Personally I think that if buying a mattress pad…and yes, I did get one for my S…helps a person (or their mother!) sleep better even if it can’t prevent an infestation altogether, then it is still money well spent. There is no way that anyone can tell me their skin doesn’t crawl just thinking about bedbugs!!!</p>

<p>And I, too, really want to know what happened to viirgo.</p>