Solid graduate outcomes with earnings above the peer average.
What graduates earn 10 years after enrollment.
Annual salary at 10 years
Lower quartile earnings
Upper quartile earnings
How graduate earnings grow in the decade after enrollment.
URI graduates experience steady income growth from early career through the ten-year mark, with earnings increasing from $57,446 at six years to $65,323 at eight years and reaching $69,743 at ten years after enrollment. This 21.4% growth from six to ten years demonstrates accelerating earning potential as graduates establish themselves professionally and advance within their chosen fields.
How outcomes compare to similar institutions.
Graduate earnings exceed the peer average, indicating above-typical outcomes for this institution type.
Financial justification for the investment.
Healthy debt burden. Most graduates can manage $22,250 in debt with typical earnings.
URI graduates carry median debt of $22,250, slightly above the peer median of $20,000 but within typical ranges for public research universities. Debt levels span from $7,909 at the 25th percentile to $27,000 at the 75th percentile, indicating most students graduate with manageable borrowing between $8,000-$27,000.
University of Rhode Island achieves well above average return performance, ranking at the 83.5th percentile nationally on Azimuth's return index. This strong positioning reflects the combination of moderate educational costs with above-peer earnings outcomes.
Approximately 26.3% of URI graduates continue to graduate or professional study, indicating that roughly 1 in 4 graduates pursue advanced degrees rath...
Program mix explains much of the earnings story.
URI's strongest earning programs demonstrate how technical specializations drive institutional return performance. Artificial Intelligence graduates earn $98,649 median income with manageable debt of $15,581, creating exceptional value for the 112 students in this program annually.
Mechanical Engineering produces $82,245 earnings with 101 graduates, while Adult Health Nursing generates $78,248 for the institution's largest program with 362 graduates. These high-earning programs contrast with service-oriented fields like Adult Development and Aging ($38,884 earnings) and Psychology ($46,464 earnings), showing how program diversity supports different career goals while the technical programs drive overall institutional return metrics.
See which programs drive the strongest earnings and career trajectories
The earnings distribution at URI spans from $44,076 at the 25th percentile to $101,736 at the 75th percentile, creating a 2.3:1 ratio between top and bottom quartiles that reflects meaningful variation in career outcomes. Low-income graduates earn $47,600, positioning them closer to the institutional 25th percentile and demonstrating economic mobility potential for students from lower-income backgrounds.
