Freshman Housing: Part 1

Hi everyone!  My name is Courtney, and I'm so happy to write my inaugural post on Faces of Fordham, the Fordham blog for international students.  I love showing students around Fordham in person because I love Fordham, so I can't wait to show everyone around Fordham in a new, virtual way!

I thought I'd start off with one of the most popular things that incoming students want to know: what is freshman housing like??  This is a huge topic, so I'm going to split it into two (maybe more) parts.  So, without further adieu...

Freshman Housing: Part 1

What building will I live in?
At Fordham, there are currently four residence halls that freshmen can live in.  They are Alumni Court South, Loschert Hall, Tierney Hall Residential College, and Queen's Court Residential College.  For now, let's look at the pictures on Fordham's website:

Loschert Hall

Alumni Court South

Tierney Hall Residential College

 Queen's Court Residential College

Of course, it's much easier to see the buildings without the trees in front, and I will take more pictures when I get around campus.

Freshmen get to pick preferences on housing forms in late May/early June.  They're online now, which means that you're not at a disadvantage, even if you're far away!  You'll find out room info, roommate info, and P.O. Box address in early to mid August.

What will my room look like?

Most freshmen are housed in doubles, no matter what building they live in.  In Tierney, it is possible to live in quads (big rooms that have four people, rather than two - my current roommate lived in one!), and it is also possible to live in a forced triple (three people in a double room, with a discounted rate).  But, since we are building some new residence halls on campus (which I'm sure we will blog about soon!), Fordham hopes to keep the number of forced triples low in the coming years.

So, how big are the rooms?  What kind of things come in them?  Here's an example of my room in Tierney Hall freshman year:

This is one half of the room, post-move-in.

It has my bed and my desk - every roommate has their own, of course!

T

This is also part of my half - my mini-fridge, a set of drawers, and a wardrobe.

The mini-fridge doesn't come with the room, but it's really easy to order one online and get it shipped to your Fordham P.O. Box - you'll get the address in early August!

So, if you can take those pictures and imagine them doubled (for two people), you can picture a typical Fordham room!  Some differ - Loschert and South have closets, not wardrobes, for instance, and the layout changes depending on the room.  However, this is the typical size for any double room at Fordham, and it was more than enough room for me and my roommate!

Below, are some other pictures of rooms here at Fordham. The room in these pictures is in O'Hare Hall, one of the upperclassmen residence halls. O'Hare, located right next to Tierney Hall, is where many sophomores and juniors live.




Here's one side of a double room



And here's the other side--as you can see, everyone finds an arrangement that works for them. Here, the bookshelf is on the desk, to allow for extra space.

What if I don't know anyone?

One of the best things about freshman housing is that you are living with a bunch of other freshmen who are just as new to Fordham as you are!  In Tierney, I knew nearly everyone in my building, and we were all friendly with one another.  It helped that Tierney was a smaller building as well (Tierney and Queens house between 150-200 students; Loschert and South are between 250-300).  Here's a picture of a lot of the Tierney residents at the End-of-the-Year Barbeque:

Our Resident Director took this from the roof!

When I moved into Fordham, I didn't know a single person, even thought I'm from Connecticut.  But neither did my roommate, so we would go to lunch together for the first couple of weeks of school.  I'm not going to lie- the first week was hard.  The good thing was that I wasn't alone, and I found friends who felt just as nervous as I did.  And guess what... they're still my best friends today!  I even live with one of them!

Along with the other freshmen in your residence hall, you have Resident Assistants and a Resident Director.  The RA's throw lots of programs for residents (we got to see Broadway shows and play nighttime Capture the Flag!) and they genuinely want to get to know their residents.  I have three friends who are RA's, and they are all really nice and fun.

---------------

That's all for this part of the Freshman Housing topic!  Stay tuned for part two and keep checking back in here for great posts from our other Fordham bloggers!

What else are you curious about for freshman housing?  Ask questions... and we will answer!