Rhode Island is one of those “you never hear anything about…” states, and the state’s flagship university flies under the radar not just of nearby academic powerhouses U Connecticut and U Massachusetts, but also of slightly farther away hipster-heaven U of Vermont. Nevertheless, URI is on a pretty serious trajectory. It’s already highly respectable engineering programs move into a palatial new facility this fall, the nursing college has gorgeous new digs, and new programs like music therapy are helping to round out a broad curriculum of studies across disciplines. For a state with dire financial difficulties (like Illinois, Rhode Island went on a drunken spree for decades awarding public pensions they weren’t funding), URI has still seen $900 million in campus investments in the last decade. And it shows. The 15,000 “Rhodies” on this campus have dozens of new facilities to enjoy, and many programs–engineering in particular–have expanded. Environmental and Marine Science are big, and the Harrington School of Communications and Media is a robust cluster of courses in journalism, communications and media studies. URI is within a mile or two from Narraganasett Bay and only a slightly longer drive to the Atlantic coast, so if beach proximity is your thing, no state flagship in the northeast will serve you better than URI. And if you’re more urban focused, the campus is a half hour from Providence, one of the liveliest up-and-coming small cities in the northeast US. Rhode Island’s “hidden” university, a little easier to get into than UConn or UMass, is worth a look.
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