Roger Williams University Overview

Roger Williams University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Bristol, Rhode Island. Bristol is a good match for students who enjoy the safety and convenience of the suburbs.

What Is Roger Williams University Known For?

• The 4% student loan default rate at RWU is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the master's degree is the highest award a student can attain at RWU.
• In 2017-2018, 41% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, RWU bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $50,500 a year. That's about 24% more than their peers at other schools.
• The average RWU student graduates in 4.1 years. That's better than the national average of 4.4 years.

Roger Williams University Rankings

We have ranked RWU as #180 out of 2,587 colleges and universities in the country in our 2022 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

RWU has been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#21	Best Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#25	Best Undergraduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#180	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#194	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at RWU.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Public Relations & Advertising Undergraduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Construction Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Legal Support Services Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Legal Professions Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#37	Best Law Enforcement & Firefighting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#38	Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#66	Best General Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#88	Best Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#90	Best Communication & Journalism Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#110	Best Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards RWU has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#5	Best Legal Assistant/Paralegal Schools	College Factual
#6	Best Legal Support Services Schools	College Factual
#30	Best Legal Professions Schools	College Factual
#48	Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Schools	College Factual
#53	Best Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting Schools	College Factual
#175	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central

Where Is Roger Williams University?

Contact details for RWU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI 02809-2921
Phone:	401-253-1040
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/rogerwilliamsuniversity
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/myrwu

How Do I Get Into RWU?

You can apply to RWU online at: www.commonapp.org/

Admission Requirements for RWU

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	neither required nor recommended
TOEFL	recommended

How Hard Is It To Get Into RWU?

Since RWU has an acceptance rate of 86%, it is not too hard to gain acceptance into the school. Still, you need to be sure you complete your application in full and send in any other requested documents.

Approximately 44% of accepted students are men and 56% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 82%, and the acceptance rate for women is 89%.

Can I Afford Roger Williams University?

The overall average net price of RWU is $43,481. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At RWU, approximately 71% of students took out student loans averaging $13,549 a year. That adds up to $54,196 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at RWU is 4.0%. 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.

Roger Williams University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 4,346 undergraduate students at RWU, with 3,828 being full-time and 518 being part-time.

There are also 356 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 3,828 full-time undergraduates at RWU, 49% are male and 51% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Roger Williams University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	65
Black or African American	88
Hispanic or Latino	335
White	2,959
International Students	33
Other Races/Ethnicities	348

Geographic Diversity

Rhode Island students aren't the only ones who study at Roger Williams University. At this time, 25 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 39 countries are represented at RWU. The most popular countries sending students to the school are Saudi Arabia, China, and Dominican Republic.

Online Learning at Roger Williams University

In 2019-2020, 4,202 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at RWU has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 4th most popular in Rhode Island for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of RWU

The following table shows how RWU is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Fine & Studio Arts	#21	#21
Mental & Social Health Services	#25	#25
Industrial Production Technology	#48	#48
Legal Support Services	#56	#56
Information Technology	#60	#60
General Social Sciences	#61	#61
Visual & Performing Arts	#73	#73

Online Growth Rankings of RWU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Roger Williams University was -17.6%. This is the #2,047 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at RWU regardless of major.

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Roger Williams University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Associate’s	Undergraduate Certificate	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	TOTAL
General Architecture	0	0	95	0	47	142
Criminal Justice & Corrections	2	0	108	0	20	130
Business Administration & Management	0	0	60	0	24	84
Marketing	0	0	77	0	0	77
General Psychology	0	0	72	0	0	72
Legal Support Services	31	3	25	0	0	59
Finance & Financial Management	0	0	53	0	0	53
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	51	0	0	51
Construction Management	0	0	41	0	4	45
General Biology	0	0	39	0	0	39
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	0	0	33	0	0	33
Mechanical Engineering	0	0	28	0	0	28
Public Administration	0	1	8	5	14	28
Legal Professions (Other)	0	0	23	0	0	23
Public Relations & Advertising	0	1	21	0	0	22
Political Science & Government	0	0	21	0	0	21
Design & Applied Arts	0	0	21	0	0	21
Economics	0	0	18	0	0	18
Natural Resources Conservation	0	0	16	0	0	16
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	0	0	16	16
Communication & Media Studies	0	0	15	0	0	15
Public Health	0	0	14	0	0	14
Accounting	0	0	13	0	0	13
General Social Sciences	5	0	3	0	5	13
History	0	0	12	0	0	12
International Business	0	0	10	0	0	10
Civil Engineering	0	0	10	0	0	10
Computer Science	0	0	9	0	0	9
Electrical Engineering	0	0	9	0	0	9
Historic Preservation	0	0	4	0	5	9
International Relations & National Security	0	0	9	0	0	9
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	1	7	0	0	8
Dance	0	0	8	0	0	8
General English Literature	0	0	7	0	0	7
Applied Mathematics	0	0	7	0	0	7
Drama & Theater Arts	0	0	7	0	0	7
Journalism	0	0	5	0	0	5
Computer Engineering	0	0	5	0	0	5
Information Technology	0	0	0	2	2	4
Chemistry	0	0	4	0	0	4
Sociology & Anthropology	0	0	4	0	0	4
Fine & Studio Arts	0	0	4	0	0	4
General Engineering	0	0	3	0	0	3
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	1	1	1	0	3
Architectural History	0	0	2	0	0	2
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	0	0	2	0	0	2
Writing Studies	0	0	2	0	0	2
Mathematics	0	0	2	0	0	2
Philosophy	0	0	2	0	0	2
Urban & Regional Planning	0	0	0	1	0	1
Computer Information Systems	0	0	1	0	0	1
Computer Software & Applications	0	0	1	0	0	1
Area Studies	0	0	1	0	0	1
Romance Languages	0	0	1	0	0	1
Allied Health Professions	0	0	1	0	0	1
Liberal Arts General Studies	1	0	0	0	0	1
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	0	1	0	0	1
Music	0	0	1	0	0	1
Other Business, Management & Marketing	0	0	0	0	0	0
Management Information Systems	0	0	0	0	0	0
Graphic Communications	0	0	0	0	0	0
Educational Administration	0	0	0	0	0	0
General Education	0	0	0	0	0	0
Industrial Production Technology	0	0	0	0	0	0
Classical Languages & Literature	0	0	0	0	0	0
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	0	0	0	0	0	0
Mental & Social Health Services	0	0	0	0	0	0
Non-Professional General Legal Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	39	7	997	9	137	1,189

References

*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.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Notyourbroom under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.