The Perfect Campus: Fordham University

Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus is, without question, one of the most beautiful places in New York City. The triumvirate of the Botanical Gardens, the Bronx Zoo and the Fordham campus are oases of green in The Bronx. Despite many isolated spots of beauty, the borough is still a sight for sore eyes in many parts.

I am biased, of course, but the Rose Hill campus has blown me away from the moment I drove down the main entrance as a potential applicant. With a variety of landscapes, an undulating topography and an appealing mix of collegiate gothic buildings, a stroll around Fordham’s campus constantly offers eye-catching points of interest. Keating Hall may be Fordham’s landmark building, but asking each student which is their favorite building on campus will produce an array of answers: the Walsh Library, the newly opened Hughes Hall, the historic Rose Hill Gym.

Recent additions to campus such as the Salice-Conley residential dorms and the completely refurbished Gabelli School of Business have been carefully designed to complement the existing historic structures, while simultaneously embracing contemporary architecture with large pane glass windows, and even a glass roof.

Many students joke about their tuition fees being wasted on Fordham’s landscaping budget, but when pressed on the issue almost all admit that they are glad Fordham take the time and effort to keep Rose Hill beautiful. Visitors to the campus are amazed that such a beautiful area exists in the Bronx, and campus tours are one of Fordham’s greatest tools in convincing potential applicants that Fordham could be the place they call home for the next four years.

At just 85 acres, Rose Hill is certainly not the grandest or most spectacular campus in the world. Those accolades have quietly rightly been given to larger, older Universities such as Princeton or Oxford. But with the ability to experience complete tranquility on a lawn just 15 minutes from the heart of Manhattan, Fordham offers the perfect campus experience for eight thousand students, and a perfect home for me.

With that, I will let the pictures do the talking…