Fordham University

Fordham University is a private, independent research university in New York City, founded by the Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841. It is the oldest Catholic institution of higher education in the northeastern United States, and the third-oldest university in New York. Established as St. John's College by John Hughes, then Bishop of New York, it was placed in the care of the Society of Jesus shortly thereafter, and has since become a Jesuit-affiliated independent school under a lay board of trustees. The college's first president, John McCloskey, was also the first Catholic cardinal in the United States. While governed independently of the Church since 1969, every president of Fordham University since 1846 has been a Jesuit priest, and the curriculum remains influenced by Jesuit educational principles. Fordham enrolls roughly 15,300 students from more than 65 countries, and is composed of ten constituent colleges, four of which are undergraduate and six of which are postgraduate, across three campuses in southern New York State: the Rose Hill campus in the Bronx, the Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan, and the Westchester campus in Harrison, New York. In addition to these locations, the university maintains a study abroad center in the United Kingdom and field offices in Spain and South Africa. The university offers degrees in over 60 disciplines.