Rhode Island has 11 private and 2 public 4-year colleges that enroll 11,007 first-year students yearly. The average tuition of public colleges is $29,980 for in-state students and $46,590 for out-of-state and international students.

Private colleges in Rhode Island charge around $56,336 per year in tuition regardless of residency.

In the 2021-2022 academic year, Rhode Island provided $1.5 million in financial aid to 948 students who enrolled in 4-year colleges for the first time as undergraduates. In addition, the colleges themselves awarded $185 million in grants and scholarships to 9,043 students.

Rhode Island receives less than 1% of the total pell grant the federal government allocates. In the 2021-2022 academic year, 2,619 4-year college first-year undergraduates were awarded a total amount of $13.1 million in pell grant ($5,025 per student on average), and 6,041 students received a total amount of $31.4 million in the form of student loans from the federal government ($5,342 per student on average).