College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
       Unbiased Factual Guarantee

Rhode Island School of Design Data & Information Overview

38 awards Ranking Badges
19% Acceptance Rate
2% Student Loan Default Rate
This overview covers the essential stats on Rhode Island School of Design, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more.
Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

How Well Is Rhode Island School of Design Ranked?

Precision Production Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Rhode Island School of Design was awarded 38 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is precision production.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

RISD was not ranked in College Factual's 2024 Best Overall Colleges report. This could be for a number of reasons, including lack of data.

See all of the rankings for Rhode Island School of Design.

Is It Hard to Get Into RISD?

19% Acceptance Rate
68% Of Accepted Are Women
31% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Rhode Island School of Design has a very low acceptance rate of 19%, making it one of the most selective out of all the colleges and universities in the nation. It's probably a good idea to apply to other schools in addition to RISD just in case you don't make the cut.

Average Test Scores

About 31% of students accepted to RISD submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 630 and 710. Math scores were between 680 and 770.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Rhode Island School of Design  ( 630 to 710 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Rhode Island School of Design  ( 680 to 770 )
200
800
RISD received ACT scores from 7% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 28 and 34.

ACT Composite Scores for Rhode Island School of Design  ( 28 to 34 )
1
36

Learn more about Rhode Island School of Design admissions.

Rhode Island School of Design Faculty

9 to 1 Student to Faculty
35% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at RISD is an impressive 9 to 1. That's quite good when you compare it to the national average of 15 to 1. This is a good sign that students at the school will have more opportunities for one-on-one interactions with their professors.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Rhode Island School of Design is 35%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  35 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Rhode Island School of Design

95% Freshmen Retention
72% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Rhode Island School of Design has a freshmen retention rate of 95%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  95 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At RISD the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 72%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  72 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Rhode Island School of Design.

Rhode Island School of Design Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,736 Full-Time Undergraduates
41.8% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
66.0% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 1,736 full-time undergraduates at RISD.

How Much Does Rhode Island School of Design Cost?

$44,979 Net Price
36% Take Out Loans
$37,228 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of RISD is $44,979. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for RISD

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$34,294 $33,369 $36,981 $41,629 $59,438

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of RISD, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At RISD, approximately 36% of students took out student loans averaging $9,307 a year. That adds up to $37,228 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at RISD is 2.3%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Rhode Island School of Design.

How Much Money Do RISD Graduates Make?

$58,131 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from RISD make around $58,131 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future RISD graduates since it is 37% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

undefined

See which majors at Rhode Island School of Design make the most money.

Location of Rhode Island School of Design

Rhode Island State
1,736 Full-Time Undergraduates
Midsize City Campus Setting
Rhode Island School of Design is a private not-for-profit institution located in Providence, Rhode Island. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

Get more details about the location of Rhode Island School of Design.

undefined

Contact details for RISD are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 2 College St, Providence, RI 02903-2784
Phone: 401-454-6100
Website: www.risd.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/risd1877
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/risd

Rhode Island School of Design Majors

13 Majors With Completions
372 Undergraduate Degrees
200 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 13 majors graduated from Rhode Island School of Design. Of these students, 372 received undergraduate degrees and 200 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Fine & Studio Arts 89 $20,934
Design & Applied Arts 73 $38,129
Systems Theory 68 NA
Architectural Sciences & Technology 42 NA
Film, Video & Photographic Arts 37 $19,604
General Architecture 30 $39,281
Woodworking 17 $22,714
Textile & Apparel Studies 16 NA
Teacher Education Subject Specific 0 NA
Sustainability Science 0 NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Rhode Island School of Design along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at RISD

22% Take At Least One Class Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2020-2021, 569 students took at least one online class at Rhode Island School of Design. This is an increase from the 0 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 569 0
2019-2020 0 0
2018-2019 0 0
2017-2018 0 0
2016-2017 0 0

Learn more about online learning at Rhode Island School of Design.

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

Popular Reports

College Rankings
Best by Location
Degree Guides by Major
Graduate Programs

Compare Your School Options