Fordham University
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Business Administration with a primary concentration in Marketing and concentrations in Communications and Media Management
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: South Asian Straight Female
Summary
I am a resident assistant on campus, I am a career ambassador, I’m involved with the Marketing Association and the South Asian Club and their dance team, and the Marketing Scholars.
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: South Asian
Sexual Orientation: Straight
High School Experience: Public school in New York City, NY with a graduating class of about 400 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: Yes
Major: Business Administration with a primary concentration in Marketing and concentrations in Communications and Media Management
Minor: None
Extracurricular Activities: I am a resident assistant on campus, I am a career ambassador, I’m involved with the Marketing Association and the South Asian Club and their dance team, and the Marketing Scholars.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
The two biggest ones have been being a resident assistant and a career ambassador. Both have changed my life for the better. I was a commuter student my freshman year and I didn’t like Fordham at all because the experience was so different. I applied to be a resident assistant my freshman year and I’ve been one for the past three years. My life completely changed the moment I started living on campus. I had so many more opportunities to get involved in clubs because I started living on campus. When you’re a commuter, you are in class all day and then you go home and you can’t make club meetings because they are at night.
Being a career ambassador opened up a lot of opportunities for me professionally. Being able to work with the Office of Career Services closely and build those relationships. I also got to meet the employers and be the first people they see, so that has also opened doors for me.
Academic Experience
Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
For my Marketing classes, we have a lot of big presentations on marketing plans and campaigns. We do have exams, but they are based on building marketing plans. For Communication, we have a lot of really active work, like presentations and class discussions. For those classes, we don’t have has many exams or essays.
Is there anything you feel your concentrations’ departments do especially well or poorly?
During the last few years, the department has been working on creating more opportunities for Marketing concentrators. We are in New York City, so the business school is really focused on the Finance and Accounting students. There are so many extra opportunities for them, which makes sense. In Marketing, you don’t get as much of that and you have to create those opportunities for yourself. But, they’ve been working on that. For example, with Marketing Scholars, I was in the first class to have it and they’ve helped create opportunities. For positives, the professors are amazing and they all have a lot of industry opportunities for students, which is a big help. Even though we don’t have companies constantly coming to recruit, they help build those connections.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
I would say it’s a mix of both because there are so many times when the class will work together to build a review sheet and it’s very collaborative, but I definitely sometimes see people be competitive. We have a competition in the business school sophomore year called the Consulting Cup where people are divided into teams and in the end, one team ends up being the winner, so that does get competitive. But, besides that, we’re pretty collaborative. Everybody wants to help each other. We understand that there are enough jobs for us to all graduate with a good opportunity, so it’s more collaborative than competitive.
How accessible are your professors?
They are pretty accessible. They’re all very willing to help and just be there for you in any way they can. The Marketing professors have been amazing for me and all the other professors have been great as well. Sophomore year I didn’t know what I wanted to major in, which is why I have three concentrations, and my professors were a huge help in figuring you what I want to major in.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I’m very happy with my choice. When I was deciding my major sophomore year I was leaning towards Management because I want to work in healthcare management. I had a conversation with one of my professors and they encouraged me to pursue marketing instead because you can use those skills to get a job in management and thought that would open more opportunities for me. I then added Communication and Media Management because I’m interested in the entertainment industry.
How was transitioning as a first-generation college student? Were there any resources available that helped you adapt?
I started off as a commuter student. In terms of commuter resources, we have commuter assistants who are like resident assistants for commuters, and the Commuting Students Association does a lot for us. They did the best that they could, but I think the difficulties come with not living on campus, especially being first-generation. There are programs that you can do through Fordham, but I didn’t qualify for some of them. It’s more divided between commuter and resident resources.
Reasons to Attend
1) If you want to be in New York City, attend Fordham. We also actually have a campus, so we’re in our own world within New York City.
2) If you’re somebody who wants to work throughout the semester, we can commute to all the big companies in Midtown and on Wall Street. I’m very thankful that we have an easy commute to those places.
3) We are a Jesuit school and there is a great network of Jesuit universities that we have access to.
4) Fordham people are caring and want to give back, so the alumni network is amazing regardless of what you’re studying.
Reasons Not to Attend
Student did not respond to this question.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on and around campus?
Freshman: I commuted
Sophomore: Resident Assistant in Belmont Community Housing. I was in an apartment of five single bedrooms with four other people.
Junior & Senior: Resident Assistant in O’Hare Hall in a single room.
How do you like going to school so close to your hometown?
I like it. One of the reasons I went to Fordham is because I want to do business and New York City is the business capital. It’s really nice being close to home in the sense that if I’m ever homesick it’s easy to go home.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
On campus, I feel pretty safe. And even for off-campus, we have off-campus shuttles that run after 10:00 PM so if I’m going to a friend’s apartment off-campus, I try to get a shuttle so I’m not going by myself and have a ride.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
There are three main bars that everybody goes to where you’ll see just the Fordham students. Tuesday nights are popular at Fordham because classes tend to be paired up Monday-Thursday and Tuesday-Friday. Thursdays are popular for upperclassmen because they like to start the weekend early, and then Friday night and Saturday night are popular because it’s the weekend.
What is an alternative to going to a party or a bar that you like for a weekend option or a night out?
As a resident assistant, we try to have programs on the weekends in our residence halls to keep students involved. There are also clubs that will hold events on Friday and Saturday night.
How happy are you with the weekend options at Fordham? Is there anything you would change about them if you could?
I love it. I love that we have our bars where it’s just Fordham students. Like, if we see students from other places we are like, “Why are you here?” [laughs]. You see the same people, but there’s something nice about seeing the same people because they’re your friends. You won’t be stuck in a big crowd where you don’t know anyone. Also, now that we’re 21, we can go out to places in Manhattan, but I prefer Fordham bars because they’re our place.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
During my freshman year when I was a commuter I had a lot of commuter friends, but I didn’t stay close to them because I started interning and the only time I would be free would be late at night when I got back from work or classes but they would be home. I ended up meeting all of my closest friends my sophomore year because of my classes. They were people who I had class with and we all became super close. The Consulting Cup is great for this because you’re in a class of 36 people and you’re in every single class with them that semester and also working within a team of six people. You become close with those people because you’re seeing them every day, so that’s how I met my closest friends.
Is it common for people to have internships during the semester?
Yeah, definitely. If you don’t, it kind of feels like you’re falling behind. It also depends on your major and what field you want to go into because recruitment differs for each industry. For marketing, you won’t have a job offer before senior year, so you have to work and work to build your resume. Because people don’t have classes on Wednesdays, you’ll take Metro-North and see everyone taking it into the city that morning to get to work.
How has the prominence of students having internships during the semester impacted your social experience?
I feel like I’m more prepared for the real world because I’ve had to learn how to balance work life and social life because you’re tempted to go out on a Tuesday but you have work the next morning. Also, I wouldn’t get the opportunity to intern during the semester if I wasn’t in New York City, so you learn how to balance it with all the opportunities here.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Fordham?
I think it’s pretty great. Every time my friends and I go out, we always have a blast. Everybody watches out for each other because we all go to Fordham. A lot of people live off-campus and a lot of people live on campus, so it’s a nice balance. If you live on campus, you will have friends who live off-campus who are willing to have get-togethers, so the social life is a lot of fun. We’re all people who have their life together and like to work hard but also have fun. [About 49% of undergraduates live on campus.]
To what extent do you think people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
It’s a predominantly White institution, but people mix and blend. Being South Asian, there are times when I’m the only South Asian in my class and there are times when I’m in a crowd and am the only person of color. But, I have never felt left out because of that. [The undergraduate population is about 57% White, 15% Hispanic, 10% Asian, 4% Black, and 9% international.]
How would you describe the South Asian community on campus? How strong is it?
We have a club, which is the Fordham University South Asian Entity, and they try to be as active as they can and put on as many programs as they can. The issue is that most of the Fordham students who are residents are White and the South Asian community of people who run the organization are mostly commuters so they want to do events and programs during the afternoon when they’re available so they can go home at a normal time, but most people are available at like 9:00 PM. When I was part of the club, I couldn’t make the meetings usually because I had work or class. It’s difficult to find the best balance of students getting home on time and getting more people involved. [See The Fordham Ram article, “Some Students Report Racial Divide Between Residents, Commuters.”]
How do you like the size of Fordham in terms of undergraduate enrollment? How was transitioning to a school with [about 9,600] students?
I thought it was going to be a lot bigger. Once you come in, you realize that it’s not that big of a group and that a lot of people know each other. I also think I feel that I know a lot of people because I’m in the business school and most of my classes are with business students and there are only [about 2,200 students in the business school at the Rose Hill campus]. We also all get to know each other because of the Consulting Cup, the business events, and the business clubs. So, Fordham is big, but in the business school everybody gets to know each other and it feels a lot smaller.
What is the impact of the Jesuit affiliation of Fordham? How strong is the Jesuit presence?
I’m not exactly sure what a “Jesuit presence” means, but, to me, it means being there for one another. I think Fordham does a great job of that. Everyone is there for each other, so if there’s anything to understand from the Jesuit values, it’s that. The alumni do that because they are always helping students with their careers and the professors do that because they’re willing to help students outside of class.
Careers
Has the alumni network helped you find internships or jobs?
Yes, it’s been super helpful. What I do is when I applied for a job I would reach out to Fordham alumni at the company. I reached out to so many alumni last year and I actually got my full-time offer through an alum who graduated last year because I reached out and expressed interest in working at the company.
What have you used the career office for? How helpful have they been?
They have been the biggest support system for me. The business school tends to focus more on finance and accounting students. During my junior year I became a career ambassador and ended up becoming very close to the employees in the office. They would help make introductions to recruiters and employees at companies I was interested in and would give me strong references. They also helped guide me through everything, I can’t imagine going through any of this without them.
Have you learned any computer languages or software that will be helpful to you professionally?
Yes, in the Gabelli School of Business makes us take a class on Excel and Microsoft Access during our sophomore year. As a Marketing major, you learn SPSS.
Financial Aid
Have you used financial aid? If so, how easy is the office to work with?
I am a pro when it comes to the financial aid office because when I was initially accepted to Fordham I had to appeal for more aid and ended up getting it. Also, when I became a resident assistant, I lost the Metro Grant, which is offered to commuters, so then I had to apply for more internal scholarships. When I lost the Metro Grant, they were very helpful to me. I reached out and explained the situation and they told me to apply to certain scholarships. I go to the office often if I have financial questions and they are very helpful.