University of Rhode Island (URI)

Located in the village of Kingston in the southern part of the state, The University of Rhode Island is a public research institution known for having "excellent science programs," including a "marine biology program [that] is one of the best in the Northeast." URI is a school that challenges me to think big and outside the box," says one student. Other stand-out majors include "nursing, pharmacy," which students feel is "excellentone of the top in the country," and engineering." Students feel that "all professors have a unique style of teaching. Most are very willing to adapt their style to fit students' needs though" and many "are able to share stories from their experiences that make the material more accessible and interesting." Another student observes that the staff is also "great at helping freshmen transferring from home to college, and there are lots of different programs offered to help students excel academically." Overall, URI is known to have a solid liberal ideology with "openness to creative and critical exploration." This engineering major finds the environment to be rather "forward-thinking [with an] emphasis on today's global workforce."

URI, as an affordable state school, naturally attracts a large percentage of Rhode Islanders. Rumor has it that this group "sticks to their friends from high school," yet one undergrad observes, "Rhody-borns are so afraid of college turning into another four years of high school that we go searching for new people to meet." The typical URI student "is involved in at least one student organization, but many are involved in more than one. They usually go out about once a week on average and study about an hour a day." There are "many students...involved in at least one type of extracurricular activity," "then there are students who are not involved at all." Campus diversity is strong, and most groups intermingle without issue.

The school's proximity to the beach and to other major cities like Providence and Boston make it appealing to students from all over the Northeast. One student reports that "driving to one of the nearby beaches to just clear your mind and relax is one of the many benefits of URI's location." Students are said to have a "two brain track" in terms of serious attention to study followed by equal attention to "relaxing and having a good time." If fine dining is meaningful to your quality of life, it's worth noting that URI's dining hall has "won a national award the past two years in a row." And, while there are complaints about the dry campus, one senior notes that this is a surmountable obstacle, in that "people usually live in the surrounding neighborhoods, so you can travel to your friends' houses and party." Others say that students who live nearby still choose to stay on campus during weekends, since this is where their social life is centered. Life isn't all about "getting wasted," chides one sophomore. "Sometimes we get together [to] make dinner and just have a movie night inside our apartment."