URI applications hit another record, even as undergraduate enrollment declines

Rhode Island’s flagship public university is seeing more applications than ever as well as an increase in graduate student enrollment, even as overall undergraduate enrollment declines.

The University of Rhode Island received a record 29,267 undergraduate applications this year, according to a Friday presentation given by Dean Libutti, the school’s vice president of enrollment management and student success, to the URI Board of Trustees.

This year’s batch of applications represents a 4.4% increase from last year’s 28,036 — which also broke records at the time.

Despite the continued surge in applications, the school is enrolling fewer students overall. URI welcomed a tinier class of incoming freshmen this fall. There were 3,115 freshmen enrolled, compared to 3,431 last year.

Enrollment overall also dropped from 17,471 to 17,168 students.

University officials had already predicted the student population might be smaller this year. During a September Board of Trustees meeting, Abby Benson, the school’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, told trustees that enrollment was unlikely to reach earlier projections. Benson said at the time that students may not be enrolling because of the financial pressures of attending college or, in some cases, because of more competitive financial aid offers they’ve received from other schools.

During Friday’s trustees meeting — the last scheduled before the end of the fall semester — Libutti gave another reason why the undergraduate population may be getting smaller: More students are completing their degrees in four years or less.

“We’re graduating more students. We’re graduating them quickly. This is value,” Libutti said.

In the 2017-2018 academic year, the four-year degree completion rate was 65.4%, according to Libutti’s presentation. That rate has risen in the intervening years and was 75.2% in the 2025-2026 academic year.

More students also graduated within that same time period, from 1,555 to 1,992, an increase of about 28%.

The faster degree completion rates can be partially attributed to the university’s array of academic supports, Libutti explained, and noted advising and winter courses as two factors in this trend. Libutti said that roughly 65% of students who graduate within four years pursue coursework during the winter term.

Additionally, about 11% of students across URI’s various programs completed their degrees in less than four years, Libutti said.

Among undergraduates, psychology remains the school’s most popular major, with 1,000 students enrolled. Close behind it is nursing with 918 students, followed by finance with 609 students.

Libutti noted that political science entered the top 10 most enrolled programs this fall, while communications and computer science — once a rising star among the school’s offerings — have dropped off the list.

Libutti recalled his experience about 30 years ago as an advisor who worked with undecided students, and noted that today’s youth appear hesitant to apply if they don’t have a major in mind.

“Students are petrified to apply to college undecided,” he said.

Graduate student enrollment, meanwhile, is growing slightly. URI enrolled 2,554 graduate students this fall, compared to 2,426 during last year’s fall semester.

Students enrolled in doctoral programs also eked upward, from 624 last fall to 671 this fall.

“That is an exciting thing to see during very tough times the past couple years when you think about recruitment and funding,” Libutti said.

URI’s graduate trend contrasts with national patterns. Graduate enrollment nationwide at colleges and universities declined 1.6% this fall, while enrollment in master’s programs fell 3.7%, according to preliminary data released Oct. 29 by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Higher GPAs and more out-of-state students

Another encouragement Libutti shared with trustees: The school has still managed to increase the number of students applying from outside the Ocean State, even though the entire Northeast’s high school graduate population is shrinking.

Libutti’s presentation noted that, over the past six years, applications for out-of-state students have grown by just under 21%.

Libutti said of the region-wide demographic decline, “We knew the cliff was coming.”

But URI, Libutti argued, is an institution attracting students from beyond Rhode Island because of the “great workforce opportunities” afforded by programs like nursing — programs, he noted, which often lead graduates to remain and work in the state even after leaving URI.

“We are an institution that people want to be part of,” Libutti said.

That includes high-achieving students, Libutti noted, citing an increase in applications from students with a high school grade point average of at least 4.0. There were more than 8,334 applications from these students overall, equivalent to just under a 44% increase from 2020 to 2026.

“I usually get the cynics, ‘It’s because of grade inflation,’” Libutti said. “You know what? There are great students who are deciding between [an] Ivy and URI.”

Alas, one category of applicants continues to evade URI’s recruitment efforts: Dakotans.

For the past several years of enrollment updates, Libutti’s running joke with trustees has been that during at least one point in his tenure, the school has received applicants from every state except North and South Dakota.

This fall URI enrolled students whose origins spanned 46 states and 76 countries — but still none who hailed from North or South Dakota.

“For my fourth year in a row, I have been foiled again by the Dakotas,” Libutti told trustees. “So we have to think of a strategy to get out to North and South Dakota.”