University of Rhode Island Top Questions

Its not very communal, its dry, no tailgating allowed, a lot of people go home on weekends

The best thing about URI are the people. Everyone on campus is very friendly and other students are always helping people out with classes. I think the school size is perfect, not huge but plenty of people around. I use to spend all my time in the lounge area of the library (URI students know it as the Refrences). It's really not a college town. Campus is somewhat far from where all the students live. I thought my teachers were great, there were a few that weren't so great, but overall an excellent staff. People are proud to go to URI, but I wouldnt say that school pride is overwhelming... It's not a big football school, so there wasn't many big sporting events to attend.

I love the beautiful campus. It's very nice. I like the size of URI as well, but one thing that I don not like is the parking. It's always really hard to find a parking space, and URI is accepting more students, and not making more parking, more parking is needed, and the stickers is too expensive. I spend most of my time in the fine arts building, and I love the faculty and staff, they are always super supportive, and pushing your creative boundaries as far as they can.

When I was deciding which college to go to, I was between Wellesley, University of New England, and URI. I knew URI very well (or so I thought), and was told by a professor to give URI a chance. I chose URI, and it was to my advantage, due to low cost of tuition and the lab I worked/volunteered at. However, the professors I have met have left something to be desired. I have had horrendous experiences with chemistry and human physiology, and I am usually a 4.0 GPA student. These teachers don't seem to care, they simply come in to do their job and leave. My human physiology teacher only checks her emails when she's being paid, so I would get a response on the days I had class (pointless..). My microbiology professor, Dr. Paquette, has been thus far, the only professor I can say has given URI a decent name. He always answered his emails ASAP, and his lectures are enjoyable to listen to. His exams may have been hard, but so worth it. One big thing about URI is there seems to be a division between commuting students and on-campus living. I think to have a successful college experience, you need to have a uniting force between the two. I have seen college campuses have this united force, and I wish URI had it. URI used to be known for being an amazing university, but the past few years, with its administration, it has become a business, not a university. If you do decide to come to URI, take as much as you can out of it. Work hard. Talk to alot of professors about undergraduate research and work. If you don't, you'll see that getting a degree and that's it isn't going to help you whatsoever. Get experience and show other things you've done.

The thing I love about URI is the location. Ive always lived in rural Rhode Island. So having to drive 10 minutes to get grocerys is no big deal to me. I live in northern RI and URI is in southern URI, so I feel away from home but not totally cut off from it. I love it If i could change one thing about URI, it would be the funding. The governor is thinking about taking away more money from our funds and that is a horrible idea. Half the people that go to URI are from Rhode Island, by taking away from our education, you are taking away from Rhode Island. On the other hand half of the students coming to URI are from out of state... Do we really want other states thinking we are dingy on money? I feel the size of URI is just right. Its over 14000 students. As an instate student, for me this means that I can find the people I want to see and aviod those that I would rather not see, i dont have to I spend most of my time at the Fine Arts Center, the music department to be specific. This kinda relates to the money issue before. That building is falling down... there are leaks and everything in it. As a music major, I live there. I feel we dont need a new bio center or pharmacy building... WE NEED A NEW FINE ARTS CENTER! Although the building stinks, I love it. In this sorta big sorta small university, I found a home and family within the music department. We are a family there. Its easy to get lost and feel left out in a bigger school. For me, my family at the music department kept me grounded Haha, what college town. Unless you are talking about going down the line as a college town... there is none. I dont mind it so much cause I have lived in RI my whole life, so having nothing around to do, is pretty much par for the cause I havent really delt with administration that much, they sign the papers I need and thats about it. Biggest Controversy... Maybe parking? I dunno the parking services can be assholes about life. I got towed from the Emporium once... while i was in bagels eating. Yeah thats fucked up. So if you have a car on campus beware. They say you cant graduate from URI without getting towed at least once. I just got it over early Id say there is school pride when needed. I recently went to a bball game and the amount of nakes guys with blue on themselves suprized me. I think when its warrented we are ready to display our blue and best rams cheer Unusual? Ummm i think the people that go here are interesting... there are definently different groups here. As an in stater there is something that distinguishes us from them. Lol. You can spot a non RI er from a mile away... Im not really sure why Ill always remember the day my car got towed... that sucked... Oh... Ill always remember my midnight walks up the hill freshman year with my room mate sam. We would hike all the up the hill... its far just to go to cumbies to get ice cream and root beer. We would sing the whole way back to Gorham and then make root beer floats in our rooms... those were the days I would complain about parking... yeah parking

The best thing is the location. I absolutely LOVE Rhode Island. The size of URI is perfect.

The best thing about URI for me (being a cheerleader) is basketball season. It is something that I look forward to every year and this year was definitely the best with the Ryan Center selling out most of the games. Another great thing is living with my friends off campus. One thing I would change is the parking on campus. There isn't enough and it isn't convenient at all. I think URI is just right. I did not want to go to a small college, I went to a very small high school and hated it. It is hard for people who don't get involved though because finding and keeping friends is difficult. People usually ask me if it really is a huge party school. When I lived on campus I spent most of my time in my dorm or at the gym, now I spend most of my time in the classroom or at the Alumni Center (where I work). URI wasn't made to be a college town, but it turned into one. After the campus became dry a lot of students moved off campus to Narragansett or Bonnet Shores, this made the towns surrounding the Kingston campus reluctantly turn into "college towns". When you come to tour the campus, URI does a great job making it seem like everyone who got "most school spirit" in high school came here. In reality, it isn't always like that, but there is a fair amount of school spirit and pride. I have some friends who don't even know that we have sports teams, and some who never miss a game. It seems like the Greek system is also fairly supportive of URI and its image. A lot of alumni keep coming back to visit as well. The one unusual thing about URI that you wouldn't expect from a New England school at least is that the students here go to the beach, a lot. The first few and last few weekends of school you can find a majority of the URI student population hanging out on the beach..we go there to 'study' during spring finals a lot. One experience I will always remember is the 07 Basketball season when we made it to the finals at the A-10 tournament in Atlantic City, it was one of the most fun weekends of my life. One complaint I hear a lot is about parking on campus.

Let me ust tell you, I come from podunk middle of nowhere Maine. There are more people in my academic major than in my home town. URI is a perfect fit for me. Going to the middle of a city would have been a total sensory shock for me. Rhode Island is small enough that I can get to the city quickly enough, but I'm not trapped there. I spend almost all my time between classes at the 193 Degrees Coffeehouse in the student union. No one really knows it exists, except the regulars. I've met all my best friends there. It's a cheap cup of fair trade coffee, just in case you need a few more points in the pretentious bank. There's live music at least once a week and an open mic night that's always a good time. There's couches and tables, and lots of people go there to nap between classes. It's just a chill atmosphere for the somewhat bizarre amongst us to congregate and talk about nothing and everything.

President Carothers bought a wolf-dog for his son. This means it was half wolf half dog. This is illegal, and he bought the dog knowing this. The dog ended up getting loose in a nearby town and terrorized the town. Some of us now call our president Bobby Wolfdog.

The best thing about URI is its student body and the location. We have great students and everyone seems to get along. The location being right by the beach is amazing, too. I would change the parking. The school is growing fast and parking is not an issue we just need more of it in coming years, and closer to our classes. Our school is just the right size... 14,000 with grad students so its big enough, but not too small. People react kindly. Last year when we went to a hedge fund seminar, people were surprised because we were not an ivy league school like all the others. Now they almost expect URI to be prevalent at those types of events because our school is up and coming. I spend most of my time in campus in the Ballentine Trading room. Narragansett is the college town as well as Kingston because that is where the students live. URI's administration genuinely cares about us. Dr. Dougan, Dean Cohen, Beverly Swann, Dr. Alfonso, President Carothers... they are great people. Biggest controversy was not having enough basketball tickets for the Providence game. The school spirit was incredible. We sold out the Ryan Center and dominated. I will always remember the Greek Weeks. Raising money for charity and having a great time - it is the best week of the year. Biggest student complaint - Tuition. The Governor doesn't care about education. He messed up and the state is in a huge deficit. It is only a matter of time before he wished he treated the 3 public institutions better because in time he will likely only have two because of poor fiscal planning on his part.