by our College Data Analytics TeamIn 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 12 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is fine & studio arts.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
RISD was not ranked in College Factual's 2025 Best Overall Colleges report. This could be for a number of reasons, including lack of data.
With an acceptance rate of 17%, RISD is one of the most selective schools in the country. Good grades and high test scores alone may not be enough to get you into the school, so do your best to submit a stellar application.
About 18% 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 660 and 740. Math scores were between 680 and 785.
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.
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 39%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.
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.
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 71%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Rhode Island School of Design.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 1,736 full-time undergraduates at RISD.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $23,458 | $23,018 | $35,107 | $42,436 | $64,532 |
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.
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 34% of students took out student loans averaging $7,148 a year. That adds up to $28,592 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for Rhode Island School of Design.
See which majors at Rhode Island School of Design make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Rhode Island School of Design.
Contact details for RISD are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 20 Washington Place, Providence, RI 02903-2784 |
| Phone: | 401-454-6100 |
| Website: | www.risd.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Fine & Studio Arts | 130 | $16,510 |
| Architectural Sciences & Technology | 104 | $55,673 |
| Systems Theory | 91 | $34,265 |
| Design & Applied Arts | 89 | $29,489 |
| Computer Software & Applications | 62 | NA |
| Film, Video & Photographic Arts | 58 | $17,701 |
| Sustainability Science | 29 | NA |
| Teacher Education Subject Specific | 23 | NA |
| General Architecture | 22 | NA |
| Woodworking | 16 | $19,151 |
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 2022-2023, 40 students took at least one online class at Rhode Island School of Design. This is a decrease from the 569 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 40 | 0 |
| 2021-2022 | 569 | 0 |
| 2020-2021 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018-2019 | 0 | 0 |
Learn more about online learning at Rhode Island School of Design.
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.