Fordham dropped 17-points in rankings from the previous spot it held as 72 on the list. (Courtesy of Twitter)

In a new release from U.S. News & World Report, Fordham University dropped to 89 in a 2024 ranking for colleges and universities.

Fordham is tied with Temple University, Southern Methodist University and the University of South Florida. Fordham sees a 17-point drop in rankings from the previous spot it held as 72 on the list.

Schools at the top of this list are predominantly Ivies and known for their status as having coveted resources such as top-tier research programs and alumni networks like Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

U.S. News has revealed criteria they consider when crunching the numbers to produce the list of the best nations and universities in the country. Factors such as graduation rates, borrower debt, faculty salaries, number of full-time faculty and peer assessment are all factors that are incorporated into rankings.

Despite the decline that has been occurring throughout the past few years, Fordham’s administration has particular views that reveal reasons for the sudden drop in a year’s worth of activities.

Provost Dennis Jacobs said the university’s reason for Fordham’s drop in rankings by addressing how U.S. News & World Report has “substantially changed its ranking methodology this year,” while also revealing that the university is “still evaluating how the new methodology affected our ranking.”

Provost Jacobs also emphasized Fordham’s commitment to keeping class size small, and “fostering the kind of close attention from faculty that helps students thrive academically.”

Provost Jacobs added that Fordham “will continue to improve its retention rate and graduation rate for students.” The idea that Fordham is a “buffer school” for students who wish to transfer to “better schools” is something that is widely discussed amongst students. Though Fordham Rose Hill has dropped in rankings, there are positives out of the recent reveals from the rankings as the Gabelli School of Business ranks #68 in U.S. News rankings, tying with other universities.

Jacobs said that there are positives despite the ranking. Jacobs said, “In 2023-24, Fordham is ranked among the top 10 universities in the state of New York.”

He added that there might be an apparent bias in the rankings, as there was a trend in public universities moving up in rankings while private universities tended to fall. Jacobs said that these findings were confirmed by the university’s “in-house research.”

Grace Duffy, GSB ’26, said, “Since I am in Gabelli, and that went up in the rankings, I’m not as concerned. However, I don’t think that the level of work that Fordham students do reflects the rankings.”
Duffy also added that “cost is one of the factors for rankings versus value. Since Fordham just had a tuition increase on an already expensive tuition, I think that’s one of the biggest reasons our ranking dipped.”
Dakota Calcaterra, FCRH26, said, “I suppose I feel the same I would feel going to any school ranked after the top 25.”

Adding, “it’s obviously incredibly disappointing that we’ve dropped, however, even that proves this is an elastic number. I have faith we’ll go back up.”