Getting Around Town

I'm originally from a small town outside of Cleveland, Ohio, and before coming to Fordham, I had never been to NYC.  One of the reasons I chose to attend the Rose Hill campus was because it had the typical college campus feel with lots of green space, yet it was close to Manhattan and all of the amazing opportunities that come with being one of the greatest cities in the world.  Before I arrived at school, I had never taken any form of public transportation, but three years later, I consider myself a pro at navigating the city.  Here is a breakdown of the usual ways Fordham students make their way around.

It's easy to get around and explore the city that's your home

Ram Van- The Ram Vans run between the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses, with vans leaving each campus every half hour.  Each ride can take anywhere from 30 mins to an hour depending on if you're travelling during rush hour or not.  Students taking classes away from their home campus can get free passes, but anyone else can take the Ram Van for $3.50 a ride.  You can even reserve your seat for a van in advance online.  The Ram Vans are driven by students, so if you are looking for a job on campus consider being a driver. 

Ram Van also offers transportation to and from JFK and LGA airports for breaks.  I personally love this service.  I just enter my flight information and Ram Van will schedule me for a van that takes me from Rose Hill right to my terminal and gets me there in plenty of time without any hassle, all for $20.  When I'm coming back, I again provide my flight information and am scheduled for a Super Shuttle van for Fordham students that brings me right back to campus.  This inbound service costs $30.  Of course there are many other ways of getting between campus and the airport (and I've used different ways when I'm travelling and it's not a break for school), but I much prefer the Ram Van service because I know it's very safe and convenient.   

Metro North (Harlem Line)- The Metro North station is literally right next to campus.  It is about a 20 minute ride to Grand Central.  Heading back to campus, you usually hop on a train going to North White Plains, and Fordham is between the second and forth stop the train makes (depending on if the train is local or express).  During peak-hour, a ticket is $8.75, while an off-peak ticket is $6.50.  One of the great things about Metro North is that on the weekends there is a City Ticket, which is only $4.25 and you can use it to travel to or from Grand Central.  

You can see campus from the Metro North station

Subway/Local Bus- Subway and bus fare is $2.75 per ride.  There is a D train stop about a 10 minute walk from campus and a 4 train stop just a little bit further from that.  If you don't feel like walking, you can take one of the local buses that stops outside of campus to the subway stations and transfer to the train for free.  Although it takes a little bit longer, I like to taking the subway because I can transfer between trains for free, meaning I can get to right where I want to go without having to take another form of transportation.  There are subway maps in each of the trains, but I found a handy smartphone app that lets me plug in a starting and ending station and it will tell me which train(s) I need to take.   

From 10pm-6am, Public Safety has vans waiting right outside of the D station on Fordham Road to take students back to campus.  One van doesn't leave until another one shows up, so there is always someone there waiting for students getting off the subway.      

Taxi/Uber/Lyft- Of course there are these stand-by methods of getting around the city, and prices vary depending on where you want to go.  

An iconic NYC taxi in the basement of Forever 21 in Times Square

I have used all of these methods of getting around, and I think that each has its own benefits.  When deciding what I'll use I take into account: the time of day I'm traveling, who I'm traveling with, where I want to go, and how much I feel like spending.  I also think that if you're living in New York you should embrace the "walking culture" (which is why I don't mind taking the Metro North to Grand Central and walking 20 minutes to Penn Station).  With all of these ways of getting around, it is easy to take advantage of Fordham's prime location.  Happy travelling!

Weekend Update

This NJ Transit map shows you how to get anywhere

Caroline Dunn

I spent the weekend at home in the suburbs of Philadelphia. While the Bronx and my hometown are only a 2 hour drive, without a car traveling from NY to PA can take much longer than expected. My other students and commuters from Philadelphia believe their only affordable option is a Mega or Bolt Bus which can cost as little as $6, but can take up to 5 hours (not to mention the extra trains from the Bronx and/or to the suburbs). An Amtrack train can take you into center city in about 90 minutes, but can cost almost $100. The hack from getting for NY to PA is not to go to PA at all! The New Jersey transit, which costs $15.50 can take you directly to Trenton Transit Center in anywhere from 60-90 minutes. Then from NJ, SEPTA transportation lines offer routes to Philadelphia and its surrounding areas. If you're lucky, maybe you can even manage for a parent to make the drive to Trenton!

The wonderful cast of Rent

Vanessa Agovida

This past weekend I performed as Joanne in the Mimes and Mummers' production of RENT. After a whirlwind rehearsal period of just five weeks, we finally got to present a show that had become very special to all of us in deeply personal ways. RENT is about love and survival, but most of all, it's about community--and our cast really became a family during this process. There's nothing like singing "Seasons of Love" with people you love. This was my fourth show with the Mimes, and maybe the most talented cast I've worked with at Fordham. Yesterday at the traditional Sunday cast dinner, I realized how grateful I am for the theatre community at Rose Hill and for the opportunity to work with fantastic professionals, like our director Brendan Stackhouse and music director Sean Forte.

One of many incredible speakers

Matt Calhoun

This weekend, along with my floormates in the Integrated Learning Community for Global Business (ILC-GB) in O'Hare Hall, I attended the European Conference at Harvard University. We left straight from campus on a special Ram Van and headed up to Boston where we stayed the night at the Revere Hotel, and attended the conference at the Kennedy School where we networked and shared ideas with members of the European Parliament (governing body of the EU) and professors from Harvard's Kennedy School.

Stranded in Pittsburgh in action

Brendan Burke

On Saturday night, I went to an improv comedy show put on by Fordham Experimental Theatre in the black box theatre in Collins Hall.  FET is entirely student run, and their improv troupe, Stranded in Pittsburgh, had a great show. The organization has different kinds of performances nearly every weekend, including improv comedy, standup comedy, spoken word performances, and plays and musicals that are written, directed, and produced by students. Plus, all FET events are free!

Juliette Arcodia

Cute little brunch spot

This weekend a few friends and I went to the Upper East Side for Saturday morning brunch. We took the 4 train right on Fordham road to 86th street and it was just a short walk to the restaurant. We went to Penrose, a great spot for brunch or dinner. The atmosphere was casual yet classy and the food did not disappoint. Afterwords we went thrift shopping before taking the train back to Fordham. It was a great Saturday out in the city!

Rent's amazing set

Amy Caffrey

This weekend, I got to see two different shows on campus. On Friday night, I went to the Blackbox Theater to see Fordham's Improv Comedy troupe, Stranded in Pittsburgh, perform.  The group is absolutely hilarious - my friends and I were in stitches for the entire show! Then, on Saturday night, I got to see Rent, which was performed by the Mimes and Mummers, Fordham's largest theater group. It was fantastic!

Delicious dinner

Victoria Cappucci

This weekend I took the Ram Van into the city and explored the Upper East Side with my roommates. We stumbled upon an organic Shake Shack-meets Five Guys burger restaurant that was sure to satisfy any appetite! Since it was all clear skies in Manhattan, we decided to take an early evening stroll through Central Park.

Our show flyer

Cat Gallagher

This past weekend I started tech week for Theatrical Outreach Program's (TOP's) production of The Laramie Project. This club does edited versions of full length shows and performs them for members of the community. For this show, we will be performing for LGBT youth. This is an incredibly talented group of students that I am so lucky to be a part of, and I can't wait to see how the show turns out next weekend!

Weekend Update

Amazing architecture

Megan McLaughlin

This weekend I headed to one of my favorite spots in NYC: the Cloisters. Located at the very top of Manhattan in Fort Tryon Park, the Cloisters is a medieval museum housed in five medieval French abbeys reassembled into a single building. It's like a tiny piece of Europe that’s accessible by the A train.

Who says you can't eat cheap in New York?

Madeline McDermott

On Friday, I used an Amazon local deal to get half-off brick oven pizza in Manhattan at a restaurant named L'asso. Afterward, I went to support my friend and fellow Ram Nicole do stand-up comedy at The Village Lantern in Soho.

Caroline McCue
This past weekend, I went to the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center!  My Grandma is a big fan of the Philharmonic and had two extra tickets.  I brought my best friend and roommate, Lauren.  We got all dressed up and went to dinner at PJ Clarke's, right across from the theatre.  The Philharmonic was an orchestra made up of mostly string instruments and it was truly beautiful, the music was so relaxing!  It was a great night filled with friends, food and music, and I would recommend going before you graduate!

Enjoying a beautiful performance

Caroline Lebranti

Loved catching up in Philly

One of the best parts about studying abroad is becoming friends with people from schools all over the country. This past weekend I took the bus down to Philadelphia with a couple of friends to have a study abroad reunion. Lucky for me, Fordham is so close to great transportation options that visiting them is almost too easy! We did all things touristy like visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and ran up the Rocky steps), went ice skating at Penn’s Landing, saw Independence Hall, and even went to a Kevin Devine (a Fordham alum!) concert at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia. It was a great weekend and made me realize how easy it is to take weekend trips out of NYC. Places like Philly or New Haven and plenty of skiing or hiking trails in upstate New York are about two hours away, and Boston and Washington DC are about four hours away. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever find yourself sick of NYC, but it’s nice to know that the option to get away is always there!

College students love the snow too!

Claire McGonigle

After track practice on Saturday, my friends and I wanted to spend a little time together and relax so we decided to play in the snow! After a busy week of school work, it was fun to be together and do something silly. Another group of people were building a fort so we all decided to get a snowball fight going which was great!

Getting Around in NYC

One of the best things about Fordham is the fact that it's in New York City, where there is so much to do and see. It's also easy to get around, with easy access to public transportation and Fordham-sponsored ways to get to and from your city excursions.

From the Rose Hill campus in the Bronx:

1) By train: If you walk out the Third Avenue gate and walk about 10 steps to the right, you'll find yourself outside the Fordham Road Metro-North station. The Metro-North is great because it gets you to Grand Central, in the heart of Manhattan, in just 20 minutes! Going home for the weekend? The Metro-North goes up to Westchester and Connecticut. Penn Station is also a quick subway ride from Grand Central if you want to take the Long Island Railroad or NJ Transit. 

Tickets to Grand Central are $8.25 one-way during peak hours and $6.25 one-way during off-peak hours. If you take the Metro-North to Manhattan on a Saturday or Sunday, make sure to buy a CityTicket, which only costs $4 one-way. Keep an eye on the time, though! The Metro-North generally runs twice an hour during the week and once an hour on the weekends, and the last train from Grand Central to Fordham is at 2 a.m.

2) By subway: A short 10 minute walk up Fordham Road is the station for the B and D subway, and another 5 minutes past that is the 4 subway station. To get on the subway, you simply swipe a MetroCard. Buying a MetroCard costs $1 and then you can add money to it and refill it. Each swipe costs only $2.50. Once on the subway you can go almost anywhere in the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. In particular, Fordham students take the D train to get to Yankee Stadium, Columbus Circle and Lincoln Center, Times Square, Herald's Square, and the West Village. It also runs pretty frequently, especially during the week and during the day. If you take the subway at night, Fordham security shuttles will be there waiting to drive you back to campus.

The subway may seem overwhelming if you've never taken it before, but it's definitely worth trying as it's the easiest way to get around in New York, and it's a part of the New York City culture. 

3) By bus: Right outside the gates of the Rose Hill campus are stops for the local BX9, BX12, BX22, and BX61 MTA buses that takes riders around the Bronx and upper Manhattan. Using a MetroCard for $2.50 per ride, students often take the BX12 up to the D subway station or the BX9 over to Target to do some shopping for their dorm rooms.

4) The Ram Van: The Ram Van is Fordham's own method of transportation, driven by students, between the Rose Hill campus and the Lincoln Center campus.  It runs every half hour, with the last van leaving from Lincoln Center at midnight on Sunday-Wednesday and 4am on Thursday-Saturday.  To ride the Ram Van, you have to reserve your place online and then buy a ticket in the Ram Van office at Rose Hill or in the lobby of Lincoln Center's Lowenstein building.  A one-way ticket is $3, but if you're taking the Ram Van for class or an internship, you can get free passes.

The Ram Van also has other great services, such as an office-campus shuttle that brings students who live off campus to their apartments at night and an Airport Service that will bring students (and their luggage) to LaGuardia and JFK International Airports before a long weekend.

From the Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan:

In addition to the Ram Van, the A, B, C, D, and 1 subway trains all stop down the block at the 59th Street/Columbus Circle station, and the local M5, M7, M10, M11, M31, M57, and M104 buses all stop right near the campus.