Student Profile
Rae
- Class: Junior
- Major: Film
- Gender: F
- High School: South Kingstown High School
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
URI is a great place for a test run in the real world. There are nothing but options here. It's located in a suburban town (where I was born and raised) but only a half an hour from Providence. So you can choose where you want to spend your time. There is also a big difference between living on and off campus. On campus, to me, seems almost like a boarding school and you have to take a bus to get anywhere off campus. However, if you live off campus, there are a large number of options available since this town is a tourist hotspot in the summer and there are a lot of empty summer houses right on the beach during the school year. Oh, that's another great thing for non-RI kids, our beaches are about 15 minutes from campus (gorgeous beaches, too.) Personally, I didn't get to meet an overabundance of different people, since half the students here are from RI and the other half from somewhere in New England. But, the kids who are here tend to have a lot of school spirit. There are an infinite number of clubs and organizations to join, and URI is very much a community that you can enjoy being a part of.
Academic Life
Academics here are just as diverse as the extracurriculars. Being in a relatively small major, I have had the great pleasure of knowing almost all the kids in my major classes from semester to semester. It makes for a very comfortable learning environment, and since the students are laid-back with one another, the teachers tend to be more comfortable in those scenarios. Aside from those classes, you always have choices between lecture halls if you prefer a less-personal atmosphere or small classroom settings where teachers go by first names and F-bombs are deemed as appropriate. Truly, everything is a class-to-class basis, so it is difficult to relay the general view of academics here. To give examples, I'll explain my best class vs. my worst class. My best has been a sort of continuous class spanning now three semesters. Most of the kids in the first classes have stayed with it, so the classroom has become extremely comfortable with all familiar faces. We call our teacher by his first name, and the classes are extremely discussion-based and hands-on. It's almost like being with a group of friends and we just happen to be learning some very cool stuff. I personally feel like I have learned the most in this classroom. On the other hand, my worst class was also in a small-class setting, but that's about the only similarity between this one and the one I just explained. The teacher was extremely monotone and condescending. Because of this, none of the students felt any desire to participate in the class. The grading was also extremely unfair, and at least two of the kids say that, because of this class, they no longer want to be a part of the class's respective major. As you can see, academics here is very topsy-turvy. The best advice is to listen to choose your classes carefully and listen to other kids who have already been through these classes that you're considering (RateMyProfessor.com is a lifesaver.)
Student Body
Okay, I don't really socialize with URI students, since I'm a local and never lived on campus. I also work full-time to support myself, so I don't really have time to socialize, let alone willingly socialize with URI students, sorry.
The Best Things
it's students
The Worst Things
it's students
