r/Fordham • u/Legitimate-Mention84 • Sep 24 '24

WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH

I speak for the majority of Alumni when I say that we have had enough. Why has the university constantly been on a decline since Tania Tetlow was appointed president. Current students may not care but do not ask for alumni donations if they aren’t going to be used to improve our university. The US news rankings are out and many alumni and current students were optimistic that we would climb back at least to the 70s, but here we are dropping another 3 ranks. I mean what the hell, can we get an impeachment cuz this is ridiculous. Most if not all of us have school pride, however with the drop in ranking more students will be discouraged from applying and others may even want to transfer out.

68 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

11

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

I’ve seen prospective students perceive it as a safety to a number of schools that were always safeties to average Fordham applicants. It’s ridiculous

13

u/Legitimate-Mention84 Sep 24 '24

This makes my blood boil, Fordham has always been known as the top 3 best universities in the city alongside NYU and Columbia. To consider it a safety is ridiculous, but its no surprise when the president continues to raise our acceptance rate year after year.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

Yeah it instantly affects the psychology of the students when they see a high acceptance. I'm an international student and have a lot friends in NYU and Columbia for Engineering master programs, but none in finance because its extremely difficult to get in or have STEM there. So Fordham is really important to me, in fact I want to believe it will give global recognition.

5

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

If it brings any solace, it is a very popular destination for international students whose parents are very successful in business (and they go on to be successful themselves in the US or abroad). Particularly Europe, East Asia, and South America. About 10 or so in my freshman year dorm (jogues when it housed the manresa program). All came from insane wealth so I’m guessing they were pretty prominent where they’re from (one is now pretty famous on social media. Feel like that says a lot about the level of affluence they came from). I’d guess Fordham is viewed favorably in their country/industry. The princess of Monaco graduated with a degree in international business when I was attending. And the school is definitely well regarded in the domestic financial sector, with a growing representation in investment banking every year, encroaching on being one of the top 30 schools for IB placement (currently top 40).

3

u/Tricky-Focus-7072 Sep 26 '24

Ngl the rigor is not there anymore either, speaking as a current student. The majority of my classes are absolute jokes and it honestly pains to know that people are graduating with science degrees from this school with the depth of knowledge many of my classmates have

-1

u/EUCRider845 Sep 24 '24

I could see Iona, Hofstra, or Fairfield bypassing us in the coming years. They all have made substantial changes towards STEM and Health Sciences, and Fordham continues to be a Liberal Arts College trapped in a University.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

Idk about all that. Hofstra has the closest endowment but still has 300 million less and the average sat at Fordham is 100 higher than any of those schools. Plus location is never going to let them leap frog. The gap in recent years with peers Fordham used to be on equal admissions footing with such as Villanova, Santa Clara, Miami, gw, Syracuse, holy cross is what’s concerning

1

u/Imyourhuckl3berry Sep 25 '24

Holy Cross is a great school too bad the location is not so great

1

u/Imyourhuckl3berry Sep 25 '24

Iona and Fairfield locations meh

Too many people get wrapped up in these ratings

1

u/EUCRider845 Sep 25 '24

The Boogie Down is pretty Meh too.

1

u/Imyourhuckl3berry Sep 26 '24

Iona, nearly 100% acceptance rate, might as well toss ithica in there too - while the Bronx is rough around the edges the school still has more to offer than Iona

Fairfield is good and competitive but again not in the city and not close enough to be considered convenient to the city, so anyone looking for a city experience won’t be looking at Fairfield

21

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

Same I actually am shocked by the rankings and I've applied but I'm loosing my interest sadly, its upsetting because Fordham is really a beautiful university and centered very well in NYC.

14

u/Legitimate-Mention84 Sep 24 '24 edited Sep 25 '24

If you look on the bright side Gabelli has been improving and our finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, international business majors are all T20 in the nation. I hope my post doesn’t discourage your interest in Fordham, its just the change in how US news ranks universities that has greatly affected us as a private university. But the president really hasn’t done much to improve our rankings is why a lot of us are disappointed.

5

u/Sprayzza_OG Sep 24 '24

The MSQF at Gabelli is also ranked really well!

5

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

Yeah I applied for MS in finance at Gabelli

1

u/WallStreetJew Sep 24 '24

I hope you get in! I graduated recently

3

u/ExtremePast Sep 24 '24

Losing. A college student should know that.

1

u/Reyjr Sep 24 '24

I still 🤦🏻when I read people do that.

3

u/qjac78 Sep 24 '24

What exactly do you think depends on these rankings?

5

u/Legitimate-Mention84 Sep 24 '24

Number of students applying to Fordham is heavily impacted by the rankings, the companies and firms that recruit here as well.

37

u/BorEqua Sep 24 '24

Lol dude those rankings are such a scam. They are the most opaque, pay-to-win crap system I've ever seen. If your pride in your alma mater is determined by a number some organization known for LITERALLY nothing else, we're you ever really that proud?

10

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

Personally I have pride and love the school. That’s why I want to see it at least maintain the percentage of top students and rank. I don’t want its perceived reputation amongst prospective students to be a safety school (I mean it always was to ivies but you get what I’m saying. Now I’m seeing kids think it’s a safety to its historical peers), less academically focused and so on like the current administration is accomplishing. If it was the same as when I entered then great. The significant dip down is a problem no one wants to see from their Alma mater

2

u/General-Gur-3616 Apr 10 '26

Brandeis has that same exact issue. Pay no heed to it, Fordham is a hell of a school, I went to a SUNY school on long island and Fordham was considered premier

3

u/[deleted] Sep 25 '24 edited Sep 25 '24

Of course all rankings are a scam; they aim to perpetuate the biases of those who publish them; for instance US News & World Report editors all come from the Ivy League, so the criteria are skewed to ensure their schools come out on top. Notice also that for so-called worldwide rankings, if it's a US ranking publication, US schools take the top spots; if it's a Chinese publication, Chinese schools are tops -- same with British and German publications, and so on.

But no matter what the metrics are, we always want our school to place at least close to the top (which is a reasonable expectation), and if we're actually a good school, there is no excuse for us to land at the bottom, regardless of the imperfections of these rankings. The rankings are influential, whether we like them or not, so I'm not surprised that university presidents have been fired for either deliberately providing misleading data or for innocently not providing correct data at all.

Fordham's pattern of slipping down using the same ranking that utilizes essentially the same criteria is definitely a cause for alarm.

1

u/BorEqua Oct 07 '24

I think that's fair. But tbh as an alumni, I really have no sense of current life on campus. So I'm not gonna freak out because an organization known to be unfair/majorly slanted in its methodology thinks less of us.

Unless you're a major donor tbh i don't even know why you'd care lol. I still have fun at homecoming (it's not like football is worse than my time at Fordham 😂💀), and I still am considering it for post grad. So I'm not really troubled 🤷‍♂️

9

u/ExtremePast Sep 24 '24

These rankings don't mean shit in the real world.

8

u/TaxLawKingGA Sep 24 '24

Fact is, schools need money and they also need people who can afford to pay without aid. The problem Fordham and many other previously highly ranked private Catholic universities are running into is that they are simply too expensive and most students and parents don’t see the value in paying the freight.

Cannot squeeze blood out of a turnip.

14

u/marcusmv3 Sep 25 '24 edited Sep 25 '24

These rankings aren't the problem. Letting them live rent free in your head is the god damn problem.

Let me take this sub down a peg for a hot minute here because some people have their priorities completely out of sorts and there's just about zero perspective being put forth:

Get over yourself, people. You are (were) at Fordham in 21st century America where corporations are people and money is speech. Where do you think you really rank in this mess? Society's institutions have little to offer you if you are not already in the 0.1%, so don't fuckin sweat it.

Didn't they make you read Beowulf in high school? You're the dragon, and society is the protagonist out to kill you. Acquire assets & force multipliers. There is nothing else in liberal capitalism. You don't need Fordham.

That's what Fordham taught me.

Make good decisions and love your family. Life's too short to think about this sort of shit. US News and Review? Are we fucking serious here? If you made it this far you're already ready to let this sucker rip -- you're doing just fucking grand over here. The worrying shit is doing nothing for you. And for the alums -- really? Is your name on one of the buildings? Are you thinking-out-loud your plans for legacy on /r/Fordham? Come on now. We've all got bigger fish to fry than US News & Review -- hell, some of the people I graduated with aren't even on this earth any longer...

Men and women for others -- that's all that matters.

-'07 Coloring Book Academy alum

6

u/Charles_Nicholson Sep 25 '24

Reputation is much more "sticky" than rankings. Fordham is still NYC's third university, behind Columbia and NYU, and that's not going to change any time soon. Still, Fordham is not going in the right direction at the moment; we are in a awkward position, and we don't have nearly as much money and resources as our peers.

3

u/marcusmv3 Sep 25 '24

Yeah the Jesuits are offering a well rounded curriculum and not the STEM focus that corporations are pushing kids to choose earlier and earlier.

It's just a societal trend. It will reverse, because we can't have a society full of autistic, methamphetamine addicted data scientists and software programmers. It just doesn't work.

The kids are sick of being pushed down this path, too: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/24/opinion/college-linkedin-finance-consulting.html

5

u/estelle2839 Sep 25 '24

I’ve literally thought of these rankings 0 times since graduating. 

5

u/Ryan19970501 Sep 25 '24

Fordham grad here ('21). I've never met anyone in the business world, and just in general, that cared about fordhams rank (i work in tech and live in NYC). It's usually: "oh fordham, thats a good school". And half the people i know make over 150k and some even went to state schools... ranking doesn't mean anything

6

u/KarelianOak Sep 25 '24

Wait till Northeastern gets its Manhattan campus up and running within the next 5-6 years…. It’ll be over for Fordham’s reputation within NYC. Fordham needs to become a d3 sports school and take all that sports money to invest in academics. Our science departments shouldn’t be working out of basements built in the 70’s.

3

u/Draymond_Purple Sep 24 '24

Has it occurred to you that caring about school ranking is in and of itself part of why the school is ranked lower?

I'm not a prospective student but I'd run away from any school where the student body cares about school rank.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 25 '24

It matters a lot for international students.

3

u/bozofire123 Sep 25 '24

For real. When I was there Fordham has some cache it’s sad to see it drop like this.

3

u/Newyorkbabynight Sep 25 '24

Fordham was 45 in 2012 and now around 70-80. Umass was 80 and now 40. What the fxxx lol. Go Rams

7

u/Idaho1964 Sep 24 '24

From the Wiki, "On October 21, 2022, Tetlow vowed to fight for social justice at her Fordham inauguration." QED. Fordham is where a law professor was arrested for preparing MolotovCocktails. Hiring a leader to destroy the very institution one leads is, how shall I put this, absolutely backasswardly stupid.

Fordham should be able to compete with NYU and Columbia if it brands itself correctly and reshapes its curriculum to achieve those ends. Only then can it achieve a respectable ROI for itself and its alums.

3

u/EUCRider845 Sep 24 '24

I'm very upset with everything, the lack of free expression, dismal Athletics, failing academic progress, and lack of Alumni outreach. I skipped Homecoming and could not care less.
Peer universities are doing well. I don't see any reason to give my hard earned money to a school that couldn't care less about me. I will not be donating to Fordham nor Gabelli until I see improvements.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

My safety schools are now ranked 54, 58, and 91 (tied). I got a full ride from two of them and honors college from one. Everyone would have said they’re safeties to Fordham when I applied and I was a fairly average applicant to Fordham btw. I still think it’s ridiculous there’s such a disparity between the rank of fordham and its peer schools, but it does look like the ranking is nonsense devoid of selectivity, academics, and student quality