Johnson &
Wales University-Providence
Private College in Providence, RI. Six-year graduation rate 56%. Median 10-year earnings $43,418.
Ten years after entry, the median Johnson & Wales University-Providence student earns $43,418 — a solidly middle-of-the-pack result for an undergraduate institution. The six-year graduation rate is 56%, meaning about two in five students who start do not finish. Graduates carry a median of $26,000 in debt — in line with the national norm.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
With an acceptance rate of 88%, Johnson & Wales University-Providence takes nearly everyone who applies. 7,828 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. Yield is low at 16%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 14% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, and test-optional applicants are not represented in them.
Test score bands (middle 50% of submitters)
These bands describe the enrolled first-years who submitted a score, not the entering class. Where most students apply test-optional the submitters are a self-selected, higher-scoring group.
| Test | 25th–75th percentile | Submitted |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading | 460–590 | 151 (14%) |
| SAT Math | 430–570 | |
| ACT Composite | 22–27 | 18 (2%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Johnson & Wales University-Providence →Academics
Six-year completion sits at 56%, meaning about two in five students who enroll leave without finishing. First-year retention of 82% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. Transfer-out runs to 23% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. The 14:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 3,913 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $32,057 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $25,530 at the $0–30k band to $35,464 at $110k+. Most students get help: 99% receive grants worth $25,152 on average. 72% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 1,051 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $25,530 |
| $30–48k | $25,443 |
| $48–75k | $28,088 |
| $75–110k | $31,803 |
| $110k+ | $35,464 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,834 of these 3,913 students, totalling $19,167,022 — an average of $6,763 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Providence County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)