By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated October 16, 2026
Eight Rhode Island colleges with pre-med programs, what they cost, and the SAT scores of the students they admit.
Rhode Island has one medical school, it publishes four separate routes into itself, and the route that begins in high school accounts for approximately half of each entering class. No other medical school covered on this site is that open about how its students arrived.
Scores are given by section rather than as a single total, because a student at 650 Reading & Writing and 520 Math is in a different position from a student at 520 and 650.
Table of Contents
- Rhode Island Pre-Med Colleges by SAT Score
- Rhode Island Has One Medical School and Four Published Ways Into It
- Brown Requires a Test Score Again, and Rhode Island Hands Every Junior One
- A Second Door Runs Through Three Ordinary Rhode Island Colleges
- Does Rhode Island Have a Scholarship Tied to Test Scores?
- What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
Rhode Island Pre-Med Colleges by SAT Score
The table below covers Rhode Island’s four-year institutions enrolling more than 500 undergraduates that offer a pre-med track. Three institutions in the state are left out of it, and the reasons are worth stating. Johnson & Wales University’s online division is a separate unit rather than a campus. The Rhode Island School of Design is an art and design college with no pre-med track, and listing it to lengthen the table would be padding. College Unbound is an adult degree-completion college below the size threshold.
Colleges are sorted by the midpoint of their two section ranges, with ties broken on the Math 75th percentile.
| College | Reading & Writing | Math | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown University | 740 to 780 | 770 to 800 | $87,648 | 7,226 | 5% |
| Providence College | 630 to 700 | 620 to 690 | $80,466 | 4,229 | 51% |
| Bryant University | 610 to 660 | 580 to 670 | $69,964 | 3,194 | 65% |
| Salve Regina University | 600 to 680 | 560 to 650 | $70,630 | 2,121 | 68% |
| Roger Williams University | 580 to 660 | 560 to 650 | $61,950 | 3,946 | 88% |
| University of Rhode Island | 520 to 650 | 500 to 630 | $34,321 | 13,381 | 72% |
| Johnson & Wales University-Providence | 460 to 590 | 430 to 570 | $60,314 | 3,868 | 88% |
| Rhode Island College | 450 to 580 | 420 to 540 | $17,454 | 5,049 | 92% |
Each range covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted scores. A quarter scored below the lower number, and the top quarter scored at or above the upper one. Being under the lower number does not rule a student out, and being just above it is not as safe as it looks.
Four things in that table are worth stopping on.
Rhode Island has two public institutions and that is the entire list. The University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College are the only in-state options at public prices, and the gap between them is large. URI costs $34,321 and Rhode Island College costs $17,454.
Cost across the whole table runs five to one, from Brown at $87,648 down to Rhode Island College at $17,454. The admit rates run from 5% to 92% across the same two colleges.
Brown reports the narrowest ranges on the page, 40 points in Reading & Writing and 30 in Math. That is what a 5% admit rate does to a range. When a college turns away nineteen applicants in twenty, the twentieth tends to look much like the others.
Johnson & Wales costs $60,314 and admits 88% of applicants with the second lowest ranges in the table. It sits nearly $43,000 above Rhode Island College in cost at a comparable admit rate, the sharpest cost-against-selectivity contrast on this page.
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Brown University
Brown University is an Ivy League university in Providence with 7,226 undergraduates, and it admits 5% of applicants, the lowest rate in Rhode Island by a wide margin. Admitted students scored 740 to 780 in Reading & Writing and 770 to 800 in Math, so the top quarter were at or above 780 and 800. Tuition and fees are $71,412 and total cost of attendance is $87,648, both the highest on this page. Brown owns the state’s only medical school and runs the Program in Liberal Medical Education, which admits students to it directly from high school.
Providence College
Providence College is a Dominican liberal arts college with 4,229 undergraduates, and it is one of three Rhode Island colleges that can nominate students for provisional admission to Brown’s medical school. The admitted range runs 630 to 700 in Reading & Writing and 620 to 690 in Math, with the top quarter at or above 700 and 690. Providence charges $63,550 in tuition and fees against a total cost of attendance of $80,466, and admits 51% of applicants, the second lowest rate in the state.
Bryant University
zBryant University is a private university in Smithfield with 3,194 undergraduates, known mostly for business and health sciences. Admitted students scored 610 to 660 in Reading & Writing and 580 to 670 in Math, so the top quarter were at or above 660 and 670. Tuition and fees are $52,677 and total cost of attendance is $69,964. Bryant admits 65% of applicants.
Salve Regina University
Salve Regina University is a Catholic university in Newport with 2,121 undergraduates, the smallest in this table. The admitted range runs 600 to 680 in Reading & Writing and 560 to 650 in Math, with the top quarter at or above 680 and 650. Salve Regina charges $50,100 in tuition and fees and costs $70,630 in total. It admits 68% of applicants.
Roger Williams University
Roger Williams University is a private university in Bristol with 3,946 undergraduates and an 88% admit rate. Admitted students scored 580 to 660 in Reading & Writing and 560 to 650 in Math, so the top quarter were at or above 660 and 650. Tuition and fees are $44,418, the lowest private figure on this page, and total cost of attendance is $61,950.
University of Rhode Island
The University of Rhode Island is the largest campus in the state with 13,381 undergraduates in Kingston, and it is one of the three colleges that can nominate students to Brown’s Early Identification Program. The admitted range runs 520 to 650 in Reading & Writing and 500 to 630 in Math, with the top quarter at or above 650 and 630. In-state tuition and fees are $16,942 and out-of-state tuition is $37,146, against a total cost of attendance of $34,321. URI admits 72% of applicants, is test-optional, and superscores the SAT and ACT for students who do submit.
Johnson & Wales University-Providence
Johnson & Wales University’s Providence campus enrolls 3,868 undergraduates and admits 88% of applicants. Admitted students scored 460 to 590 in Reading & Writing and 430 to 570 in Math, so the top quarter were at or above 590 and 570. Tuition and fees are $42,419 and total cost of attendance is $60,314. That cost figure sits close to Salve Regina’s and Roger Williams’s at a considerably lower reported range. A cost column exists to make exactly that visible.
Rhode Island College
Rhode Island College is a public college in Providence with 5,049 undergraduates, and it reports the lowest cost of attendance on this page at $17,454 and the highest admit rate in the state at 92%. Admitted students scored 450 to 580 in Reading & Writing and 420 to 540 in Math, with the top quarter at or above 580 and 540. In-state tuition and fees are $11,300 and out-of-state tuition is $27,299. Rhode Island College is also one of the three colleges that can nominate a student for a reserved place at Brown’s medical school, which makes it the most interesting row in this table and is covered further down.
Rhode Island Has One Medical School and Four Published Ways Into It
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence is the only MD program in Rhode Island accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. It holds full accreditation and was first accredited in 1963.
Brown publishes something most medical schools do not. It lists four separate routes into the school and the approximate share of each entering class that arrives by each one.
Standard admission runs through the American Medical College Application Service, the ordinary national process. The Program in Liberal Medical Education admits students from high school into an eight-year combined degree. Postbaccalaureate linkage takes career changers who complete a postbaccalaureate program at Bryn Mawr, Columbia, Goucher or Johns Hopkins and are nominated by their advisers. The Early Identification Program takes Rhode Island residents already enrolled at three named colleges in the state.
In-article image 1 Placement: directly after the paragraph below What it shows: the four routes drawn as four bands of a single entering class, sized to Brown’s published Class of 2030 shares of 45%, 44%, 8% and 3%, with the decision point marked on each band: high school for PLME, junior year of college for the Early Identification Program, the postbaccalaureate year for the linkage, and the ordinary cycle for standard admission Image annotation phrase required in the adjacent sentence: approximately half of the class was decided before those students had finished high school Alt text: the four admission routes into Brown’s medical school, sized by share of the entering class File name: warren-alpert-four-routes-share-of-class Size: 2760×1440
For the medical class of 2030 Brown gives the Program in Liberal Medical Education 45%, standard admission 44%, postbaccalaureate linkage 8% and the Early Identification Program 3%. For the class of 2029 the figures were 40%, 53%, 4% and 3%. Read either year and the same thing is true. Approximately half of the class was decided before those students had finished high school.
One inconsistency is worth flagging rather than smoothing over. Brown’s own page describes the PLME cohort as the second-largest route while its class of 2030 figures put PLME a point ahead of standard admission. The safest reading is that the two routes are close to even and have traded places between years.
What the Program in Liberal Medical Education Actually Requires
The Program in Liberal Medical Education is an eight-year combined baccalaureate and MD program, and a student applies to it through Brown’s ordinary undergraduate application rather than through anything separate.
An applicant indicates interest in the program on the Common Application and is considered for both Brown’s College and the program itself. He may apply Early Decision or Regular Decision, and Brown suggests Regular Decision for a student who is not willing to commit to attending Brown without a place in the program.
There are no course requirements beyond what the College recommends, though advanced coursework such as honors or AP classes is encouraged where a student’s school offers them. Brown strongly encourages a video introduction covering the applicant’s experiences and motivations.
Brown does not publish a seat count, an applicant count or an acceptance rate for the program on its own pages. Other websites publish figures. This page does not use them, because a number a university declines to publish about itself is not a number worth repeating secondhand. The share-of-class figures above are Brown’s own, and they say more than a seat count would.
Set that against the other states on this site and the scale is unusual. New Mexico reserves 28 medical school places a year for students recruited out of high school. Kent State selects 35 for Northeast Ohio Medical University. The University of Tulsa takes five. Hofstra fills a class of ten to fifteen. In each of those the high school route is a defined slice of a larger class. In Rhode Island it is approximately half of it. See pre-med colleges in New York, pre-med colleges in Ohio, and pre-med colleges in New Mexico for how the smaller versions work.
Brown Requires a Test Score Again, and Rhode Island Hands Every Junior One
Brown reinstated its standardized test requirement in a letter from President Christina H. Paxson dated March 5, 2024, beginning with the Class of 2029 entering in 2025-26.
Applicants must submit SAT or ACT scores, except in rare cases where a student cannot take either test. Student veterans, transfer applicants and Resumed Undergraduate Education students remain test-optional. Brown’s application checklist states that it has “returned to a policy requiring standardized test scores (either SAT or ACT scores) for first-year applicants,” and that it will “superscore either the SAT or ACT, or both.”
The reasoning Brown gave is unusual enough to quote. Its committee found that test scores are among the key indicators that help predict a student’s ability to succeed, and that test-optional policies had an effect nobody intended, namely that some students from less advantaged backgrounds withheld scores that would have helped their applications. The committee concluded that reinstating the requirement “is consistent with Brown’s commitments to excellence and equity.”
Now the other half of it. The Rhode Island Department of Education administers the SAT as the state assessment to grade 11 students, with the PSAT 10 in grade 10. Every Rhode Island public school junior sits the SAT at school as part of state testing.
Put those two facts together and the sequence in this state is cleaner than anywhere else covered on this site. A Rhode Island student takes the SAT in eleventh grade because the state gives it to him. Brown requires the SAT. The Program in Liberal Medical Education runs through Brown’s ordinary undergraduate application. The test he takes at school in his junior year is the test that opens the largest single route into the only medical school in his state.
The state published before this one on this site reached the opposite conclusion. No Oregon college requires a test, one of them refuses to look at a score, and Oregon has suspended its own graduation testing requirement. Two neighbouring pages, two opposite answers, and both of them come from what the institutions themselves say. See pre-med colleges in Oregon.
A Second Door Runs Through Three Ordinary Rhode Island Colleges
Brown’s Early Identification Program offers provisional admission to the Warren Alpert Medical School to Rhode Island residents enrolled at the University of Rhode Island, Providence College and Rhode Island College. A separate long-standing relationship exists with Tougaloo College in Mississippi.
Each partner institution may nominate up to four students. Brown publishes no total figure, so what the published numbers support is up to four nominations from each of the three Rhode Island colleges, rather than a fixed count of seats.
The timing matters, because this route is decided in college rather than in high school. A student tells his premedical advisor of his interest shortly before his fifth semester, at the start of junior year, though advisors may set earlier internal deadlines. For Rhode Island applicants the 2026 materials were due to Brown no later than January 27, 2026.
No grade point average cutoff, MCAT requirement or test score appears in the published criteria. Selection weighs readiness for medical school and college academic performance that shows high aptitude for medical study, with transcripts and the premedical advisor’s recommendation covering grades through the first four college semesters.
The residency definition is stricter than most and it is checked against documents. An applicant must have graduated from a Rhode Island high school, and his parents must have lived in Rhode Island for the previous two calendar years as shown on federal tax returns. A dependent student must live with his parents and be claimed as a dependent on the prior two years’ returns. An independent student needs at least one parent resident for those two years. A student who moves to Rhode Island for college does not qualify.
In-article image 2 Placement: directly after the paragraph below What it shows: the three nominating colleges placed on the same SAT scale used in the main table, with admit rate and cost of attendance printed beneath each, so Providence College at 51% and $80,466 sits beside Rhode Island College at 92% and $17,454 Image annotation phrase required in the adjacent sentence: the same route runs through the most selective and the least selective colleges in the state Alt text: the three Rhode Island colleges that nominate students to Brown’s Early Identification Program, compared by score, cost and admit rate File name: rhode-island-eip-three-nominating-colleges Size: 2760×1440
Look at where those three colleges sit in the table at the top of this page. Providence College has a section midpoint of approximately 660, admits 51% of applicants and costs $80,466. The University of Rhode Island sits at approximately 575, admits 72% and costs $34,321. Rhode Island College sits at approximately 498, admits 92% and costs $17,454. All three can nominate, so the same route runs through the most selective and the least selective colleges in the state.
Does Rhode Island Have a Scholarship Tied to Test Scores?
Rhode Island has no scholarship tied to a test score.
The Rhode Island College Hope Scholarship covers tuition for the last two years of a four-year degree. It requires eligibility for in-state tuition, enrolling at Rhode Island College as a first-time first-year student, continuous full-time enrollment, a FAFSA, a declared major, a cumulative grade point average of 2.5 and staying on track to graduate in four years. No test score appears anywhere in it.
Rhode Island Promise covers tuition at the Community College of Rhode Island, and students should check its current terms directly because they have changed over the years.
Which produces a combination worth setting out plainly. A Rhode Island student can attend Rhode Island College for $17,454 a year, have two of those four years tuition-free on a 2.5 average, and still be enrolled at one of only three colleges in the state that can nominate him for a reserved place at Brown’s medical school.
That is worth saying once and then not overselling. A nomination is not an admission, up to four nominations a year is a narrow opening, and the Early Identification Program accounts for 3% of Brown’s entering medical class rather than a third of it. But every piece of that combination is published, and a family comparing colleges on price alone would never find it.
What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
Being below a published range does not disqualify anyone. A quarter of the students admitted to every college in this table scored below its lower number.
Rhode Island splits into two situations and a student should know which one he is in.
For Brown and the Program in Liberal Medical Education, a score is required rather than optional, and the ranges are the most demanding on this page at 740 to 780 and 770 to 800. There is no softening that. A student aiming at the program is aiming at a college that admits 5% of applicants and now asks every one of them for a test score.
Everywhere else in the state, admission is reachable. Rhode Island College admits 92%, Roger Williams and Johnson & Wales 88%, the University of Rhode Island 72%. URI is test-optional and superscores for students who choose to submit.
The useful part is what sits behind that second group. The Early Identification Program names no test score in its published requirements at all. A student who does not reach Brown’s range as a high school senior has a second published route into the same medical school, and the thing it asks him for is four semesters of strong college work and his premedical advisor’s recommendation.
For a student who is aiming at Brown, the arithmetic is worth doing early. The University of Rhode Island’s section midpoints are approximately 585 and 565. Brown’s are 760 and 785. That is a gap of approximately 175 to 220 points a section, and based on the students we have worked with since 2008, a 130 to 250 point improvement on the total takes approximately 80 hours of effective studying. Closing a gap that size is a project measured in years rather than months, and that is the argument for starting in tenth grade rather than twelfth.
The number worth aiming for at any college is the upper end of its range, the one the top quarter cleared, rather than the middle. The reasoning behind that is on what SAT score you need for college.
How to improve your SAT score covers the method, including how to find which topics are costing points instead of guessing at them. If there is no recent score to measure a gap against, a free diagnostic SAT gives one, broken down by section and by topic.
How to Read These Score Ranges
Every range on this page covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted the SAT. The lower number is the 25th percentile and the upper number is the 75th, which means a quarter of admitted students scored at or above it.
This page has a wrinkle no other state page has, and it is worth understanding before comparing the rows.
Seven of these eight colleges are test-optional, so their ranges describe the students who chose to submit a score. Students with strong scores send them and students with weak ones do not, so a test-optional range sits higher than the true range for everyone admitted.
Brown is now different, because it requires a score from every first-year applicant. Its range will eventually describe its whole admitted class rather than a self-selected part of it. That change is recent, though. Brown’s requirement takes effect with the Class of 2029, and the figures in this table come from students who applied before it did, so Brown’s range here is still a submitter range like the others. A reader comparing Brown’s numbers against these colleges in two or three years will be comparing two different kinds of measurement. More on test-optional colleges.
Why This Page Shows the SAT and Not the ACT
All eight colleges in this table report SAT section ranges and six of them also report an ACT composite. No college here reports an ACT range without also reporting the SAT, so an ACT column would add nothing and leave nobody out.
For a student the practical answer follows from the state. Rhode Island administers the SAT in school, so that is the test most students here will already have sat under real conditions. Brown accepts either test and superscores either, and so does the University of Rhode Island.
A student who already holds a school SAT score is normally better off improving it than starting over in a format he has never seen. Starting the ACT from scratch throws away the familiarity the state has already given him.
Pre-Med Programs in Nearby States
Rhode Island borders only Massachusetts and Connecticut, which makes the out-of-state question simpler here than in almost any other state.
Leaving Rhode Island costs a student the Early Identification Program entirely, because that route requires a Rhode Island high school diploma and two years of documented parental residency in the state. It costs him nothing at the Program in Liberal Medical Education, open to applicants from anywhere and the larger route by a wide margin.
New York does not border Rhode Island but is close enough to appear on plenty of Rhode Island students’ lists, and it publishes SAT floors that decide who may hold a reserved medical school seat.
See pre-med colleges in Massachusetts, pre-med colleges in Connecticut, and pre-med colleges in New York.
Pre-Med Colleges in Other States
We publish the same breakdown for pre-med programs in every state.
See pre-med colleges by state for the full list.
Glyn Caddell
Glyn Caddell holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from NJIT and has been tutoring New York City students since 2008. He founded Caddell Prep in 2012 and is the author of Digital SAT Math Secrets: Lessons & Tricks to Quickly Improve to a Perfect 800 on the Math Test, which contains over 900 practice problems and is used in Caddell Prep’s SAT math classes. He is founding president of the Staten Island Technical High School alumni association and teaches every lesson on this site personally.
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