Fordham University Paper Format & Writing Requirements

Fordham University at a glance

The oldest Catholic university in the Northeast, chartered in 1841 as St. John's College, with a Rose Hill campus in the Bronx and a Manhattan campus at Lincoln Center that feed internships in media, finance and law.

The campus sits in New York, New York, operates as a private (jesuit) institution, and enrolls about 15,800 students — a scale that directly shapes how writing support works. Founded in 1841 with an acceptance rate around 54%, Fordham University pairs selective admissions with the large-course writing loads typical of its category.

Citation styles Fordham University actually requires

Fordham University courses predominantly require MLA 9 or APA 7 or Chicago. That is not a trivial preference: it decides your title page, heading levels, in-text punctuation and reference format on every graded document.

• MLA 9: used across humanities and writing-sequence courses
• APA 7: used across social science, nursing and business courses
• Chicago: used across history, fine arts and some social science seminars

Verify against the specific course syllabus anyway — instructors can override departmental defaults, and the first paper is where they enforce it.

The writing requirement, decoded

The core curriculum requires the composition sequence (ENGL 1101/1102), and the Writing Center runs peer sessions at both the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses; honors theses and major seminars lean on both.

Plan the sequence early: composition requirements compound, and students who defer them discover the advanced seminars — where the writing-intensity lives — conflict with major courses later. The registrar's degree audit shows exactly which flags remain; check it each semester.

Three things about Fordham University papers that surprise new students

• WFUV 90.7 FM, Fordham's student-built station, has broadcast since 1947 and now operates as a full NPR member serving New York.
• Edgar Allan Poe spent his final years in the Fordham cottage a short walk from the Rose Hill gate and read with the college's literary society.
• The University Church's stained glass won awards at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago before installation on campus.

None of these appear in the course description. All of them appear in the rubric. Students who learn them in week one report smoother first-semesters than students who meet them at the deadline.

Assignments Fordham University students face most

• Essay — most frequently assigned across Fordham University's programs
• Research Paper — most frequently assigned across Fordham University's programs
• Literature Review — most frequently assigned across Fordham University's programs
• Term Paper — most frequently assigned across Fordham University's programs

Popular programs at Fordham University include finance (gabelli school of business), communication and media studies, political science — each pairs the assignment list above with its own capstone or practicum expectations, detailed on our subject pages.