Rhode Island College — Attraction in Providence

If cost were not a consideration, I can't see why anyone would go to RIC. RIC has gotten into the business of exploiting working/lower middle class "first generation" students, luring them with claims of you're-getting-an-Ivy-league-education-here-for-bottom-dollar. Many other reviewers here are students who over-idealize RIC because they don't know it any other way.

As a four-year college, RIC consistently ranks at the BOTTOM of college rankings (not just US News, but Forbes and Wall Street Journal, too). And just look at the graduation rate of 51%. Everyone knows that students trying to put their way through school with two jobs often drop out, but is that the only factor? I doubt it. Look at the average RIC graduate's salary, it's less than $40,000 ten years after graduation! That’s the lowest of all four-year colleges in R.I. Indeed, you get what you pay for at RIC! Never mind this excuse, "our graduates take lower paid jobs as nurses, teachers, and social workers." Other schools, like Salve and URI, have grads entering those fields and their avg. salaries aren't so pitiful!

Other than nursing (which does pay well these days), accounting, finance, social work, and the arts majors, most of the other 90 programs are a joke. Why? Sure, there are lazy pothead students, like everywhere else. Other students struggle academically, coming from low performing high schools. But the real problem is the faculty (I mean the tenured ones). Many faculty put little effort into teaching and being accessible to students. Instead, they claim they're too busy with their "research," as if they're "experts" working at a major public research institution (like UConn, Rutgers, or Michigan), where they'd rely on teaching assistants to help teach the class. What kind of research do they do? I really don't know, as you don't usually pick up The New York Times or The Atlantic and read: "according to a Rhode Island College study..." Many of these faculty are pompous, deadwood, liberal elites who use their taxpayer-funded ivory tower as a job for life as they thumb their noses at students. I graduated from RIC 15 years ago, though I took some courses there since and kept tabs on the place. So I'm comfortable saying: math, philosophy, and English depts. were especially bad. Most programs in communications are awful. Political science is very mixed, psychology seemed OK. But what about majoring in education, the biggest deal RIC has going? It got some awful ratings last year when the R.I. Dept. of Ed. did its review. A few School of Ed grad programs lost accreditation and undergrad ones were put on probation.

Of course, after many years of bordering on dilapidated, I’m sure the campus is looking better every day, the question is: how it’s ever going to be paid for (the bond issue was only for Gaige, Craig Lee, and Fogarty’s nursing lab). Enrollment and donations were down by the time Carrioulo got the boot 2 years ago. Unfortunately, I don’t have much confidence in Sanchez, as all he seems to care about is the politically correct diversity agenda (when RIC doesn't exactly have a diversity problem with so many urban students attending). Regardless of their background, most students should just save their time (as it almost always takes well over 4 years to graduate from RIC) and money. The best alternatives (if you want an actual job after college) are the 2 year career and technical programs at CCRI or NE Tech. Or, just go to URI, which has a much better reputation (and still has...

Trying to find out if you get accepted or not. Haha good luck. They office is run by people that don't know what they are doing. I've been waiting for over a month for a response and every time I call they say I should know by then end of the week by the end of the week by the end of the week. It's absolutely ridiculous how unorganized the admissions office is. Make sure you apply to other colleges just in case they give you the run around.. its good to have other options . Completely aggravating and frustrating process dealing with...

It's a nice college, but do your research before you sign up for the professor! It's only my second semester and I had to change this review. Some things have changed, classes are getting better but it was mostly because I looked up the professors on that 'ratemyprofessor' website. Not all of them are bad people. There's a lot of DR. Prefixes in their name but I have yet to see the quality of work. Overall it's not too bad if like I said, you research the professor before you...