First-Year Experience

At Fordham College at Lincoln Center, vibrant classroom discussions, lively campus events, and student clubs provide resident and commuter students with countless opportunities to connect with their peers, faculty, and staff. First-years are active participants in college life. The first-year experience goes far beyond our orientation program in August. First-years are active the entire year as they are thoughtfully challenged in the classroom, participate in academic and social clubs, and meet people from all over the globe.

Before Arriving: A Common Reading

Even before arriving on campus, incoming first-year students are introduced to Fordham, New York City, and their fellow classmates through an online discussion of the assigned common reading. This shared text will ignite your first intellectual interaction with your classmates and faculty through your own class blog. Students will discuss the summer text, with their faculty advisors and English professors, during the first days of the fall semester.

First-Year Learning Communities

Once on campus, first-years take part in an integrated organic education—an education that doesn’t distinguish between living and learning, and treats every experience as an essential part of personal and communal growth. This is learning in a distinctly Jesuit way. Fordham College at Lincoln Center’s integrated learning community ensures that learning occurs inside and outside the classroom.

The First-Year Experience is for residents and commuters alike. First-year commuters are partnered with mentors, who provide nonresident students with a support system to help balance their home lives with the new and exciting challenges of college. Through event programming and individual meetings, mentors help foster a sense of community and inclusion for commuters.

Our Integrated Learning Communities are housed in our impressive high-rise residence hall. Dedicated in 2013, McKeon Hall provides the most up-to-date amenities and comforts of a college residence hall fit for midtown Manhattan. All first-year students will participate in a number of academic and social programs in McKeon, while appreciating the incredible views which include, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Hudson River, Central Park, Columbus Circle, the George Washington Bridge and much more.

Check out this video of what it is like to wake up and arrive at our beautiful campus — in the center of “The Capital of the World!”

Urban Plunge

Urban Plunge introduces new students to the college experience in New York City prior to Orientation. New students are teamed with returning students to discuss important issues of justice and to volunteer in New York’s varied communities.