Attention high school seniors: the Common Application for 2025 is now live! We’re excited to kick-off the new application cycle!
You are considered a first-year student applicant if you are:
Merit-based scholarships are available to qualifying students. Learn more:
First-year Scholarships
| Early Decision | Early Action | Regular Decision | Enrollment & Housing Deposit | Spring Admission (Jan.) | FAFSA Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 1 | December 1 | February 1 | May 1 | December 15 | March 1* |
*Reminder: New students and parents will need to create an FSA ID before they can access the FAFSA. The site to create the FSA ID is also experiencing outages and lengthy delays. After the FSA ID is created, it may take up to three days before it can be used. For more information, visit studentaid.gov.
International students and transfer students: Please refer to our International Admission page or Transfer Admission page for your specific application deadlines.
* We recalculate all grade point averages on a 4.0 scale using only core academic courses for grades 9-11, giving additional weight to honors and AP courses.
** Please note that URI will remain test-optional for the 2024-2025 admission cycle.
Admission to the University of Rhode Island is competitive, and each candidate for admission receives individual consideration. All applicants must complete a minimum of 18 units of college preparatory work:
All students are encouraged to select their additional units from the areas of English, foreign language, mathematics, social science, or laboratory science. The strongest candidates for admission and scholarships are those students who have completed the most rigorous courses available to them.
* Please note that we require standard, college preparatory Algebra 1 and 2, which cover the full content of this subject matter; courses such as “Algebra 2 with Financial Applications,” or “Algebra 2 with Personal Finance” do not satisfy our minimum math requirement.
** We will accept two years of American Sign Language coursework (documented on the high school transcript) as satisfaction of our foreign language requirement. Also, first-year foreign language courses completed in the eighth grade will be counted toward the minimum two year requirement.
† Students who have earned the “Seal of Biliteracy” in high school (noted on the transcript) may receive Gold and Silver Seal credits after completing an advanced course in their language sequence at URI. For more information, contact the department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at languagedepartment@etal.uri.edu.
‡ Students who have 18 units of college preparatory course work who attend high schools that do not offer foreign language may still be considered for admission. The admission committee will consider all aspects of the student’s application, with special emphasis on the rigor of the courses selected and academic performance in those courses. Students admitted under these circumstances will be required to take foreign language coursework in their first year at URI.
Students will not be required to submit standardized test scores as part of the admission process. We will review all applications in a holistic manner, considering grades earned during high school, level of challenge of courses completed (including senior year courses), letters of recommendation, essays, special talents, and involvement and leadership in schools and/or communities.
We recommend that students pursue a rigorous course of study, including in the senior year of high school, which may include honors, IB, dual enrollment, and/or AP courses, and advanced coursework in college preparatory subjects such as math, science, foreign language, social sciences, and the humanities.
NOTE: When you complete the Common Application for URI, you will be asked to answer the following: “I would like my test scores (SAT or ACT) to be considered as part of my application to URI.” If you answer yes, we will wait to receive your test scores before reviewing your application for admission.*
* URI will remain test-optional for the 2024-2025 admission cycle. If you choose to submit your test scores, we must receive them directly from the College Board or ACT. The URI code for the College Board is 3919, and the URI code for ACT is 3818.
Your application will be reviewed when the Office of Admission has received all of these materials:
A completed Common Application. Application fee of $65.* †Submitting an official high school transcript (preferably through the Common Application) is recommended at this time, but not required.
List of senior courses (admission is contingent upon successful completion of all your current coursework and graduation from high school).
Essay (nursing, pharmacy, and talent development applicants must include an additional paragraph explaining their choice of major).
At least one letter of recommendation (please limit to two). If your school counselor writes your letter of recommendation (which is our preference), there is no need to submit a teacher evaluation/recommendation. Pharmacy applicants are required to provide two letters of recommendation.
Admitted students are required to submit a final high school transcript showing proof of graduation by July 1.
* We recognize that paying the application fee may present a financial challenge for some of our applicants. The Common Application includes a question about the application fee, along with a list of ways you may qualify for a fee waiver. If one of these options pertains to you, please select that option and a fee waiver will automatically be applied. If you are unable to pay the application fee and none of the options listed describe your situation, please 1.) select the option for “other fee waiver” in the URI questions section of the Common Application; 2.) complete and submit your application for admission; and, 3.) send an email to us at admission@uri.edu with the subject line “Fee waiver.” In the email, please state that paying the application fee will be a financial hardship for you. We will then apply a fee waiver to your application. We also accept emails from school counselors letting us know that paying the application fee will be financially challenging for the student(s) they are working with.
† Please note that we do not have a fee waiver specifically for military-affiliated dependents.