Rhode Island Schools
Rhode Island, as everyone knows, is a very small state. That, and the fact that Rhode Island students have access to a lot of colleges and universities in neighboring states, explains why Rhode Island has just 13 colleges (if you include the Naval War College) within its borders. But, even with only about a dozen options, Rhode Island students have some good choices. Brown University, one of the eight Ivy League colleges, is by far the most selective institutions in the state, admitting only about one of twelve applicants. The University of Rhode Island, which enrolls in the area of 15,000 students, is nationally known for its marine sciences programs.
The next largest institution in RI, and the earliest founded public college in the state is Rhode Island College, which serves more than 9,000 students.
Rhode Island has two Catholic colleges; Providence College and Salve Regina College. Together they enroll close to 8,000 students. The community college system covers the state well with 7 campuses.
Johnson and Wales University, which has additional campuses in Colorado, Florida, and North Carolina, is well known for its culinary arts and hospitality services programs, enrolls 10,000 students, from all over the nation, at its Providence campus. For students interested in technical fields, there is Lincoln Technical College in the town of the same name and New England College of Technology in East Greenwich.
Rhode Island School of Design is thought by many to be the best college of art in the nation. It’s campus is in the same area of Providence as Brown.
Several Rhode Island institutions offer online degree options.
Traditional Colleges In Rhode Island
Brown University
- Site – www.brown.edu
- Phone – 401-863-2378
- Admissions – Admission_Undergraduate@Brown.edu
- Financial Aid – Financial_Aid@Brown.edu
Bryant University
- Site – www.bryant.edu
- Phone – 800-622-7001
- Admissions – admissions@bryant.edu
- Financial Aid – finaid@bryant.edu
Johnson & Wales University
- Site – www.jwu.edu
- Phone – 800 DIAL JWU
- Admissions – pvd@admissions.jwu.edu
- Financial Aid – sfs.pvd@jwu.edu
Providence College
- Site – www.providence.edu
- Phone – 800-721-6444
- Admissions – pcadmiss@providence.edu
- Financial Aid – finaid@providence.edu
Rhode Island College
- Site – www.ric.edu
- Phone – 800-669-5760
- Admissions – admissions@ric.edu
- Financial Aid – joconnor@ric.edu
Roger Williams University
- Site – www.rwu.edu
- Phone – 800-458-7144
- Admissions – admit@rwu.edu
- Financial Aid – finaid@rwu.edu
Rhode Island School of Design
- Site – www.risd.edu
- Phone – 401-454-6300
- Admissions – admissions@risd.edu
- Financial Aid – admissions@risd.edu
Salve Regina University
- Site – www.salve.edu
- Phone – 888-GO-SALVE
- Admissions – sruadmis@salve3.salve.edu
- Financial Aid – flanagal@salve.edu
University of Rhode Island
- Site – www.uri.edu
- Phone – 401-874-7100
- Admissions – uriadmit@uriacc.uri.edu
- Financial Aid – uriadmit@uriacc.uri.edu
Community Colleges – Rhodes Island
Community College of Rhode Island
- Site – www.ccri.edu
- Address – 400 East Ave, Warwick, RI 02886
- Phone – (401) 437-5224
Vocational, Career, & Trade Schools
Lincoln
Lincoln Technical Institute
Warwick
New England Institute of Technology
Online Colleges In Rhode Island
Rhode Island has what can only be described as a sorry state online degrees and programs. A 2012 National Center for Education Statistics report found that only 1.6% of students enrolled in the state’s Title IV institutions were taking their degree programs completely online. Despite the fact that that number has undoubtedly grown, this makes Rhode Island the worst, if not the worst, place for students interested in taking a degree program online. However, this low participation rate in online degree programs is par for the course for a New England state, as the region overall has the lowest number of students participating in online degree programs, and the lowest number of colleges offering a wide range of these types of programs overall. As the smallest state in the nation, prospective students will only find a few colleges to choose from within the state overall. Each of these do have some form of online learning available, but to a very limited degree for most of them.
The four schools in the state that prospective students should consider for online degree programs are Johnson and Wales University, New England Institute of Technology, University of Rhode Island and Roger Williams University. The most affordable of these are the University of Rhode Island (in-state tuition ~$13,000, out-of-state tuition ~$30,000) and the New England Institute of Technology (tuition ~$21,500 a year).
Johnson and Wales University offers a good variety of online degree programs, both for graduate and undergraduate degree seekers. Through the university’s School of Online and Continuing Education, prospective students will find 12 Bachelor’s degree programs and nine Master’s degree programs. Bachelor’s degree seekers can choose from Baking and Pastry Arts and Food Service Management, Business Studies, Culinary Arts and Food Service Management, Hospitality Management, Media and Communication Studies, Liberal Studies, Business Administration, Entrepreneurship, Human Resource Management, International Business, Organizational Risk and Cyber Security Management and Operations and Supply Chain Management. Graduate degree seekers can choose from MBAs in Business Administration, Finance, Hospitality, Human Resource Management, Nonprofit Management, and MS degrees in Criminal Justice, Finance, Human Resource Management and Nonprofit Management.
Despite having very few online degree options, the New England Institute of Technology is ranked at #140 among Best Online Bachelor’s Programs by the U.S. News and World Report. While the school has a wide range of online classes available for students, there are a limited number of full degree programs available online through the school. Nursing, Information Technology (Master’s), Criminal Justice (Bachelor’s) and Construction Management (Master’s) are the only graduate and undergraduate degrees available through the institution.
Much like the New England Institute of Technology, the state’s sole public institution, The University of Rhode Island, has a very limited number of online degree programs. While the school has a wide range of specific online classes, the number of whole programs are extremely limited. These include Nursing (Bachelor’s) and Master’s degrees in Dietetics and Cybersecurity. There are several online graduate certificates available through the school, including Digital Forensics, Cyber Security and Digital Literacy.
Prospective students interested in a variety of online degree programs may not find what they are looking for in Rhode Island. However, in-state students seeking online degrees can consider the options available as worthwhile.