As a first-year Lincoln Center student, I had never encountered a reason to venture up to the Rose Hill Campus. As a junior in high school touring Fordham, I only ever wandered the halls Lincoln Center because I knew that I wanted to be in the heart of Manhattan. I didn’t pile into a Ram Van during the first few weeks of school to party at Barnyard, go to Homecoming or even sign up for any classes at Rose Hill next semester. In fact, the only time I had ever set foot inside the Bronx was when I went on a field trip to the Botanical Gardens in the tenth grade. 

This past weekend, I finally had to do it — make the journey up to Rose Hill — and to be quite honest, I was excited to experience a whole new Fordham environment.

I have no complaints about the Ram Van trip there. The Cross Bronx Expressway was clear and the driver didn’t have any strange music on — granted, this was at 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday. Once we arrived I was immediately overwhelmed by the physical grandeur of the campus. The buildings, including the parking garage, looked like castles instead of your average, run-of-the-mill office building vibe that Lowenstein gives off. 

On the day that I went, it happened to be 28 degrees outside. I was freezing walking around campus, and I started to long for the tunnels around Lincoln Center. At Rose Hill, I could get frostbite walking around from building to building. At Lincoln Center, even in 28 degree weather, I can go from my dorm to my classes in shorts and a t-shirt without thinking twice about it.

I noticed that most of the students at Rose Hill wear, almost exclusively, Fordham apparel. It’s rare if I see anyone from Lincoln Center repping Fordham sweats instead of something they just picked up while thrifting in Brooklyn. 

There’s a general consensus that the students who make up each campus are very different. Most students would not disagree that there is a rivalry between the two campuses, and I think that how and where the two campuses operate contributes to this rivalry.

Both campuses have very different energies. Lincoln Center students are very much independent New Yorkers. Although they may come from all over the world, most students choose to immerse themselves in Manhattan. Students are constantly going down to Soho for pop-up shops, walking down to the AMC Lincoln Square for a movie or rushing to another section of the city for their internship. Although it is college, it also feels like we’re already being thrown into the “adult world” because of where our campus is located.

Rose Hill is a much more stereotypical college campus. Everyone hangs out, studies and parties on this huge campus. It felt strange to be in a place that was technically my school, but felt absolutely nothing like it. 

After four hours in the Bronx, it was time for me to begin my journey home, so I hopped on the Ram Van ready for an easy commute. Fifteen minutes into the drive an alarm started going off. Immediately I started to panic, and the next thing I knew we drove off the Cross Bronx and pulled over to some random side street in the Bronx because the van had overheated. We waited in the van, where the driver assured us that this never happens, for about a half-hour. Everyone inside tried to make the best of it, except the guy behind me who was napping and woke up confused as to why we weren’t moving. 

Suffice it to say, after the two and a half hour Ram Van trip, I was happy to be back at Lincoln Center. I missed the fast-paced energy of the city compared to relaxed nature of Rose Hill. Now that I’ve been to Rose Hill, I think I’d go back for a day or maybe even take a class there, but at the end of the day, I guess I am a true Lincoln Center student at heart.