Fordham is one of the most-searched "am I competitive?" schools in the country — a Jesuit university in New York City with a national name, an admit rate that sounds friendly, and a testing bar that's quietly higher than people expect. Here's the real range.
According to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard, Fordham University admits 59.3% of applicants, with a middle-50% SAT range of 1320–1480 and an ACT range of 30–33.
The number that surprises people
A 59.3% admit rate reads as "safe." The testing band doesn't. 1320–1480 is a range that overlaps with schools admitting half as many students — Fordham's admitted class scores like a much more selective university than its admit rate suggests.
That combination — generous admit rate, demanding score band — usually means one thing: the applicant pool is heavily self-selected. Students who apply to Fordham mostly already have the numbers, so the university can admit a majority of them while keeping the class profile high. The admit rate measures the pool, not the bar.
Reading the range honestly
- Below 1320: you're under the 25th percentile of admitted students. Admission is not impossible — a quarter of the class is here — but the SAT is not carrying your application. Everything else has to.
- 1320–1480: you're inside the band. Fordham behaves like a match, and the higher you sit, the more it drifts toward likely.
- Above 1480: you're past the 75th percentile — ahead of three-quarters of the admitted class. At this level Fordham functions as a safety-with-merit-upside, and the conversation shifts to scholarship money.
One honest caveat: admitted-GPA figures you'll see quoted for Fordham are estimates rather than published federal data, so we don't print one. The SAT and ACT bands above are the verified spine of the picture.
Test-optional, but not test-blind
Fordham accepts applications without scores, but the published band tells you what the admitted class actually looks like. If your SAT sits inside or above 1320–1480, submitting almost always helps — it's verified evidence you belong in the class. If you're meaningfully below, the test-optional route exists precisely for you, and the rest of the application carries the weight.
Where Fordham fits on a list
Fordham is the rare school that can be a match for a 1350 student and a merit-bearing safety for a 1500 student — same campus, completely different role on the list. That's exactly why the "what's your SAT?" question matters more here than the admit rate does.
Full acceptance-rate history and score data live on our Fordham data page. And if you want the one-minute version — where your numbers land at Fordham and across 576 universities — get your free score. No account needed.
--- Data: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard / IPEDS. PrepToDone does not publish predicted personal admission chances.