At a Glance
Rhode Island admits 74.6% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Shown at in-state rates.
Debt at Graduation
66.3%
receive need-based grant aid
$42,945
average debt at graduation
Rhode Island graduates carry an average of $42,945 in debt.
Merit Aid
2,578
students received merit aid
$7,266
average merit award
Getting In
Rhode Island admits 74.6% of applicants.
University of Rhode Island's Early Decision applicants are admitted at 1x the rate of Regular Decision applicants — 74.3% vs 74.6%. Note: ED is binding — you commit to attending if admitted.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 23% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 2% of the class submitted
19% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University of Rhode Island rates your personal essay as Very Important — equal weight to your GPA. Don't underestimate it. Demonstrated interest is Considered — showing genuine engagement with this school may help your application.
Student Life
38.3% of Rhode Island classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At Rhode Island, 38.3% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section I-3 (class sizes)
17:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
Live on campus
46%
Men in fraternities
24%
Women in sororities
30%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
Rhode Island's student body is 68.7% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Rhode Island graduates 57.4% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
Rhode Island graduates 57.4% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
Rhode Island
57.4%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $34,321*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2025–26, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
71.2%
Overall 6-yr rate
62.5%
Pell recipient rate
An 8.7 point graduation gap between lower-income and overall students suggests financial or academic challenges for some students.
Freshman Retention
85.2%
85.2% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Kingston.
Kingston is a historic village in South Kingstown, 30 miles and roughly forty minutes south of Providence, and the campus sits about ten minutes from the Narragansett beaches. URI's own commuter office says most juniors and seniors move 'down the line' to Narragansett Pier, Wakefield, Point Judith and Matunuck for their last two years, which makes the beach towns as much a part of student life as the village is.
Notable Alumni
Christiane Amanpour
CNN's chief international anchor and host of Amanpour & Company on PBS, who took her journalism degree at URI
Class of 1983
Robert Ballard
Marine explorer who located the wreck of the Titanic in 1985 and, earlier, the first deep-sea hydrothermal vents; he took his doctorate at URI's Graduate School of Oceanography and later returned there to teach
Thomas M. Ryan
Chairman and chief executive of CVS from 1994 until 2011, who started there as a pharmacist the year he finished URI's pharmacy degree
Class of 1975
Lincoln Almond
Governor of Rhode Island from 1995 to 2003, and before that the state's U.S. Attorney for two decades
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
College town
Kingston, RI
Best For
Traditions
Oozeball
A mud volleyball tournament the Student Alumni Association has run every spring since 1990. The field by the Plains Road lot is plowed by local farmers and then soaked by the Kingston Fire Department until it is nearly a foot deep; teams are six a side, single elimination, and alumni are allowed to enter alongside students.
Keaney Blue
URI's light blue is named after Frank Keaney, who coached the Rams from 1921, went 401-124 and is credited with inventing the fast break. URI athletics says the school colour was his creation — which is why the shade carries a coach's name rather than a committee's.
The Inner Space Center
At URI's Narragansett Bay Campus, a satellite link carries live video from research ships at sea around the clock. Undergraduates — in marine biology and ocean engineering, but also film and media studies and computer science — work the control room during expeditions rather than watching graduate students do it.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Kingston
Narragansett and the South County beaches
15 minutesNarragansett Town Beach, Scarborough and Point Judith are a short drive east — and the same towns are where most upperclassmen end up living.
Newport
30 minutesThe mansions, the sailing harbour and the summer festivals, across the bay.
Providence
40 minutesThe state capital and the nearest city. Amtrak's Northeast Corridor stops at Kingston station a couple of miles from campus, so it is reachable without a car; Boston is about an hour further on.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Rhode Island T.F. Green International (PVD)
35 minutes from campus
For international flights: Boston Logan International (BOS) — about 1 hour 30 minutes by road.
Pro sports nearby
- Providence Bruins AHL
- Rhode Island FC USL Championship
- New England Patriots NFLAbout 1 hour away
- Boston Red Sox MLBAbout 1 hour 30 minutes away
Career Proximity
Rhode Island packs its employers inside an hour of campus in a way a bigger state cannot — submarine construction at Quonset Point half an hour north, biomanufacturing in West Greenwich, and the hospitals, insurers and banks in Providence.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- General Dynamics Electric Boat
- CVS Health
- Amgen
- Brown University Health
- Citizens Financial Group
- Naval Undersea Warfare Center
Providence, 40 minutes
Who Thrives Here
URI admits 74.6% of applicants, and applying early decision barely moves that — 74.3% of its early decision applicants were admitted, so the binding commitment buys an earlier answer rather than better odds. The campus is a village in South Kingstown, about forty minutes from Providence and minutes from the Narragansett beaches, and by junior year most students have moved down the line to the beach towns: 46% of undergraduates live in university housing. Greek life is a substantial part of the social map — 24% of men and 30% of women join. Academically it is shaped like the large public it is: 17 students per faculty member and 38.3% of classes under 20. Cost is where families need to look hardest. URI meets 57.0% of demonstrated need on average and its graduates carry $42,945 in average debt, and the outcomes trail that price — 57.4% finish in four years and 71.2% within six. Students who received a Pell Grant finish within six at 62.5%, against 71.2% for the cohort as a whole.