Core Curriculum FAQs

We want to ensure a Fordham education truly prepares students for the world they will inherit. Our previous core, designed in 2008, was often experienced as an unwieldy checklist that unintentionally created hurdles for STEM majors, transfer students, and students with disabilities. By revising the core, we are creating a more flexible, integrative, and student-centered journey that actively addresses modern challenges like sustainability, global inequality, and artificial intelligence, empowering students to thrive and lead with purpose. Colleges and universities regularly review and revise their core requirements as part of their responsibility to prepare students for an every-evolving world.

The revised core moves away from a rigid checklist of 17 to 20 disconnected classes. Instead, it offers a streamlined, flexible framework anchored by clear learning goals—Knowing, Doing, and Being. It introduces a cohort-based first-year experience to build community immediately and places a renewed, foundational emphasis on justice and ethics. Students will have more freedom to overlap core studies with their major, minor, or personal passions, giving them the agency to practice the “art of choosing well.”

The revised core honors Fordham’s Jesuit mission of educating the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—by asking students to reflect on what they want to know, do, and become. It requires courses focused on justice and ethics to prepare them to settle injustice and promote the common good. They will also engage directly with our local community through the New York City Experience, living out the Ignatian call to be people “for and with others.”

The revised core honors Fordham’s Jesuit mission of educating the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—by asking students to reflect on what they want to know, do, and become. It requires courses focused on justice and ethics to prepare them to settle injustice and promote the common good. They will also engage directly with our local community through the New York City Experience, living out the Ignatian call to be people “for and with others.”

The new core curriculum is scheduled to officially roll out beginning in the fall of 2028. It will apply to the incoming class of first-year students arriving that semester. Between now and then, our dedicated faculty and staff committees are working hard to carefully map out the transition, advising plans, and course approvals as part of Phase Three of the core revision process.

The revised core will not change degree requirements for current Fordham students. The new curriculum is designed specifically to roll out for the incoming first-year class starting in fall 2028. Current students will continue to follow the core curriculum requirements that were in place when they first enrolled, ensuring their path to graduation remains steady and uninterrupted.

While students will have greater flexibility in the revised core, they will share several foundational experiences with their peers. All students will take a First Year Core Seminar paired with a Writing and Rhetoric course, meaning they will progress through these classes with the same cohort of friends.

We recognize that every student’s academic journey is unique. As the current core does, the revised core provides tailored “pathways” depending on specific degree programs. Whether students are pursuing a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Science in a STEM field, studying in the Gabelli School of Business, or dancing in the Alvin Ailey program, core requirements are carefully adapted to ensure they can explore their passions while graduating on time.