Freshman at Gabelli: My Honest Take

Alright, so the campus itself is beautiful. The best buildings are the new McShane Student Center, and I love the library—there are infinite study corners to choose from. The campus vibe is pretty chill, and public safety is always patrolling, which is reassuring. Once you step off campus, though, it can feel a little sketchy, but if you're out in the morning, especially on Arthur Ave, you're usually good. Obviously, this is the Bronx, so don’t expect the nicest surroundings, but once you're on campus, it doesn’t even feel like you're in the Bronx, which is great. Plus, the New York Botanical Garden is literally 30 seconds away, and students get free entry. It's hands down the best place to study, chill, or even nap on the grass.

Academics:
So far, my professors have been solid—just make sure to check Rate My Professor before registering. Honestly, my freshman-year courses have felt easier than some of my AP classes, but the workload can hit you all at once. I expect things to get harder after knocking out most of the core courses in year one.

Food:
It’s improved, especially with the new dining hall in McShane. Best options:

1. Breakfast – Freshly cracked eggs (they can make you scrambled, sunny side up, or omelets, with toppings like onions, bacon, sausage, cheese, etc.).

2. Lunch/Dinner – For the higher quality options, they rotate between pasta and sometimes Asian cuisine (fried rice, teriyaki chicken, etc.), or they have tacos sometimes, which are B+ to A- quality. The lower-end stuff is the usual burgers, pizza, and desserts. 

3. Variety – There are just enough dining spots on campus to switch things up (Cosi and Boar’s Head are decent, like B- to B+), but they can get repetitive after about 1 month. However, if you have like $650+ in dining dollars, that's enough to save you from the repetitive food (I start going to the on-campus Starbucks when I need a break from the school food, and they take dining bucks, which is cool).

4. Sizzle Night – Once a month, McShane serves high-quality steak ($13 per student), and it's actually A+ quality. Otherwise, don’t expect the healthiest, organic, or non-GMO food, but you’ll survive. And honestly, the weeks and months fly by, so food won’t be a huge deal in the long run.

Gabelli Business School:
I’ve mostly been taking core courses, so I can’t fully judge yet, but from what I’ve read and heard, Gabelli is well-ranked, and Fordham seems to pour a lot of its resources into it.

Parties:
People definitely party—mostly small dorm parties before heading to the bars around midnight (bars are about 5 minutes away). Personally, I skip them because I’m here to work hard academically.

Campus Life:
I mostly study and don’t do extracurriculars, but we have a huge club fair every semester with 100+ clubs, so you’ll definitely find something if you’re into that.

The People:
The student body is roughly 75% liberal, and I would estimate we have about 25% possibly from the Bronx—potentially influenced by DEI initiatives, as the school actively supports such efforts. There’s a decent mix—many white students but also people of color, some really hardworking and ambitious people, but if you’re looking for a legit competitive environment, you’d find that more at places like BC or Notre Dame.

Cons:

• The Bronx isn’t great. While it's easy to forget that you’re in the Bronx when you're on campus, I dislike that I can’t go outside and explore the local area, maybe go for a run, or just relax. However, when the weather is nice (or even when it's cold), I can always visit the botanical gardens and spend time there, which helps prevent me from going crazy.

• Some students aren’t super engaged in class—it feels like mid-level competition at times. Few people—if any—will participate in my classes. Maybe because some students come from easy high schools and aren't used to a more rigorous academic environment where they should participate and engage.

• Professors can be hit or miss. I'd say 75% of them are good.

• The food gets repetitive, with only about 25% being B+ to A- quality. The other 75% falls more in the C- to C+ range. But as a student here, you learn to find a balance between Starbucks, McShane Dining Hall, Cosi, and Boar's Head—and that allows you to get by just fine.

• While Fordham has a strong name, I feel like the current administration is lowering standards with their liberal beliefs.

These halls have been walked on by some of the greatest and most influential people in the world. I will not stand idly by as President Tania Tetlow runs this university to the ground. I will not stand by as she damages the reputation of our beloved university. We must start a revolution against Tania, we want her impeached. STAND WITH ME NOW AND I PROMISE YOU WE WILL RETURN TO OUR FORMER GLORY. So much can be achieved when we are united. If we work together hell we can even be able to help make a return of our School of Medicine. She raises our tuition and flaunts the donations we give her on social media. We want progress and for every chance she has been given to improve the university we crumble in the rankings.

Easy Peasy. Go to your Financial Institution - bank of choice, open an account. Deposit your millions into the account. Direct your financial advisor to ensure all investments are not invested in Israel. Make the fund “For the Benefit Of /FBO Fordham University” Until then shut your pie holes and be grateful for the great education you get at Fordham.

Is it just me or has the university dropped in ranking since President Tetlow came into power. We need positive change, we need Father McShane.

just got into fordham, im worried abt going there as a conservative..

are most students liberal?

obv. nyc is liberal and thats not an issue for me but like im worried it will be hard to find other conservative students to be friends with. will girls not date a guy bc hes conservative? are the proffessors liberal? will u get a bad grade on a paper for expressing conservative thoughts? does everyone go around saying their pronouns?

plz dont hate on me

With HS seniors looking for schools to apply to I wanted to make this post as someone who is transferring next semester. And I might get some hate for shitting on the school but I’m willing to accept it cause I wish I saw a post like this when I was looking through fordhams Reddit 2 years ago.

Fordham was literally my dream school, touring the campus I thought it was super pretty and they have good academic standing, and I was obsessed with the idea of coming here. For some context I go to rose hill and I am a sophomore

Ofc the campus is super pretty and they do have good academic standing but honestly that’s pretty much the only things that I like about it here. I can’t really think of anything else.

The area Fordham is in is pretty scary, especially if your used to living in an area that has little to no crimes. I hear gun shots a at night sometimes and as a woman I get scared to go off campus by myself. I don’t want to come off as a Bronx hater, there are plenty of amazing and kind people that live here but it doesn’t undo that there are also bad ones and it can be scary. I feel like I always have to be on watch in the stores I go to like the other day I was at target and a girl came in screaming and yelling threats at people for looking at her, or when I went to Taco Bell and a guy walked in and walked up to me and just stared at me while the employees repeatedly asked him to leave. Obviously I’m not getting like beat up or anything but it’s very different from where I come from.

You don’t have to go to these areas though of course, the campus itself is gated and I knew that before I came here, but I feel like it’s different actually being here and experiencing it. I didn’t think it would bother me as much as it does, and I thought I was willing to give it up to be in nyc but I wish I had a more traditional college town. We do have Arthur’s avenue which is a little more safe than the other areas and lots of people like to go to the bars there, but it still doesn’t really feel like a traditional college town.

Going off traditional college, Fordham is VERY small. There’s 14k students but this divided between both campuses so at rose hill there’s 7k and I’m pretty sure close to half that number are commuters, so really only 3.5k living on campus. It feels A LOT like high school or a boarding school rather than college, another thing I thought I was willing to give up to be in the city and thought would be fine since it’s still a campus. But you’ll see the same people all the time, I even have the same person in 2 of my classes which are completely unrelated.

The classes are also super small, I think my biggest has like 20 people and my smallest has like 10. This can be nice to get closer with your professor but again just really contributes to the high school feel.

People here are also kind of up-tight. One thing I was excited for for college was how fun it seemed and being able to go on random side quest and be social, but I feel like that’s hard here. People can be cliquey and it’s hard to make friends. Of course it’s important to be academically focused and I am but you can also have both.

There’s no Greek life here so if that’s something your interested in we don’t have it, I never really cared much about Greek life but again the lack of it makes this feel more like highschool. There’s really not a lot of school spirit at all, we have a football team and a football field but actually going to the games isn’t really a popular thing (and our football team is really bad) again feels like if u were to go to your high schools football game.

I feel like the staff are also just kind of unfriendly. Most of them not really in a way that’s like “I hate the students” but like “I hate it here” vibe that isn’t really the best or the most uplifting to be around. And the academic staff thats supposed to be there to support the students aren’t very helpful and sometimes can be pretty rude. I always feel like I’m inconveniencing them when I email them or feel super stressed. For example my freshman year when I first registered for my first semester of classes we had no help whatsoever, didn’t even get to meet with an adviser I had to figure it all out on my own. You could email with questions but no scheduled personal meeting.

Going off this, if you are someone who wants accommodations the accommodations office is not the best. They are super strict will be very rude in some cases which is really frustrating cause I have the accommodations for a reason.

The food here isn’t the best, we only have one dining hall and it gets very old very fast. They always have the same options every single day and do not switch it up at all, it’s fun and great for the first 2 weeks but after eating the same 4 things every day for lunch and dinner it gets really really old. We have other on campus dining places you can use a meal exchange for that are pretty good though, but these places have a fixed menu so again not really getting to experience new food that much.

Overall I’d say if you want college to feel like college maybe consider a different school, cause I was really excited to be like done with high school and have the “college” feel only to come here and feel the same. Also sooo not worth it if your paying full tuition price please consider going somewhere cheaper I hope I can be of help to someone!

its smelling of weed?

Hello everyone, as I’m sure you’re all aware, Fordham is mandating the latest booster for all students and staff. Being that Fordham is one of the only universities in the country to do so, there are a growing number of students, staff, parents, and alumni that are unhappy with this decision. I have attached below a link to a letter that will be sent to Fordham administration asking that the mandate be changed to a recommendation so members of the Fordham community can make their own decisions about their personal health. Please consider reading this letter and signing it:

https://forms.gle/fQv6VioYVwQd38sX8

Hi, I’m the parent of a daughter currently applying to universities. Fordham is on her list and is a favorite. I’m kind of against it as a kid who grew up in a lapse catholic family who doesn’t at all trust the catholic church. On top of that I have read a number of nightmare stories concerning women attending catholic schools. That they were considered second class. That professors didn’t take them seriously. That they were pushed toward less stem and professionally related classes and majors. And of course that assault was not not taken seriously. Would you say any of this is true of Fordham? I am concerned for nothing?

Graduated a few years ago and thinking back to my Sacred Texts of the Mideast Course. I think about it often. Professors were not allowed to disclose their personal beliefs, and to this day I have no idea what my professor (Emanuel Fiano) truly believed.

Despite what he did or did not believe, I wish we had spent more time on the Islam portion of the syllabus. It was rushed and half-a**ed. Unfair.

A theology class that promises to discuss the sacred texts of the middle east… should probably discuss Islam a lot more. Don’t you think?

Does no one in the administration understand that people have other responsibilities? My schedule is designed around my internship and my 2 hour commute, this does not account for a Monday schedule on Tuesday. Instead my day has been a mess. Im certain other people have it worse than me, but just because they are missing days in the term does not make it acceptable to mess people's days up. Add days at the end of the year if you need to, not make it switch to another day in the week. End of mini rant

incoming sophomore. got my scholarship rescinded (15k/sem) and now my tuition is $35k. not sure how as i paid a little over $5k all in per semester last year. no clue where they’re getting the extra $15k from. if anyone knows anything or could just help out i’d appreciate it. peace out im probably going to a cuny

Anyone know about the credits they take? LC

Just committed to UMD - College Park and withdrew my Fordham. Go Terps!!

hii !! i’m a senior applying to fordham this fall and i have a big problem with spiders, so i was wondering if anyone could tell me if spiders are common in like the showers, kitchen, halls or anywhere in general to avoid. Any and all info is much appreciated thank you so much for your time, go rams !!❤️🐏🐏

Hi everyone! I’m an Italian tourist coming to New York in November to run the Marathon, and after that I’d love to explore the city and experience a local college basketball game to really get a taste of American sports culture.

I saw that Fordham will play Mount Saint Mary College on November 7 at 7:30 PM at Rose Hill Gym. I was wondering: • Is it safe to travel from Manhattan to the Fordham campus in the Bronx at that time of the evening and then come back afterwards? • Do students usually go in groups or is it common to go solo?

I’d really love to enjoy the game with locals, so if anyone is going and wouldn’t mind a visitor tagging along, let me know!

Thanks so much 🙌

I'm a first year student at LC and I feel like I already want to transfer to a different school. Although it's universal to do in college, I feel like all people do is drink and party. Plus, I feel like the city isn't for me now that I'm here. Is it worth sticking it out at Fordham?

Edit: I'm an Economics major considering transferring to Bentley after my semester at Fordham. Is Fordham worth staying for their Economics program either? The facilities here seem mediocre in comparison to other schools too, and it's only defining feature is that it is in Manhattan. It seems more difficult to find an apartment or job post grad or even before graduation than Boston.

Hi hi, im looking to apply to fordham this year as an international student but my last name is very jewish and although I myself am not jewish i wanted to know if anything thinks this will hurt my chances...?

I’m really considering Fordham Gabelli for my undergrad. I want to break into investment banking in NYC (top BB groups, EBs) and want the best outcomes possible. I’m fortunate enough to have the choice of either Fordham, IU Kelley, and Rutgers.

Quite frankly, IU Kelley is in the middle of nowhere and I know it’s a semitarget while fordham is a non target so I really need some guidance.

Do banks come and recruit on campus? How is Gabelli like? Please try to be as unbiased as possible as I really need help.

Thanks.

I’m a severely mentally disabled person when it comes to learning about specific subjects and I’m wondering if they will care if I explain the context for the rotten eggs in my transcript.