Hey there! Thanks for sharing your insight and perspective as someone who is well acquainted with both URI and RIC, I appreciate it immensely!

Well, with RIC specifically, I was looking at triple majoring in Geography, Public Administration and History while conversely at URI I would be interested in triple majoring in Environmental Economics, Supply Chain Management and History. URI does seem to have some more niche studies available but at the same time, RIC seems to be more affordable (and I am completely broke, so I would be depending on both my earnings from my job and scholarships, whether strictly need based or a mix of need based and merit, but I am not sure yet). Considering my financial state, RIC doesn’t seem like a bad option.

The city/urban aspect doesn’t bother me, I was homeless in Providence for a time and it wasn’t that bad, I enjoyed how walkable it is, but nonetheless, I would probably be commuting to classes from the Westerly area since it is closer to work.

I should clarify, Westerly seems to be distant from the more populous urban areas in Rhode Island and socioeconomically and culturally more integrated with the southeastern CT communities.

I should also have made it clear that I am writing from a public transportation perspective since I don’t drive, and my observation has been that southern Rhode Island seems poorly connected with itself.

There are frequent buses that take you from Newport to Providence every day of the week, for example, and the bus system coverage (while definitely nowhere near perfect at all and has a long way to improve) is decent enough throughout and within the Providence metro area (Pawtucket to Prov, or Warwick to Prov, etc). Going in the north-south direction from Newport to Providence is not that bad. Going in the east west direction from Newport to Westerly is far worse because there just isn’t enough public transit options to take you directly there. You’d have to go through Providence (via bus or a mix of bus and train) to get from Newport to Westerly for the fastest route. There just doesn’t seem to be an integrated bus line that takes you directly through Newport-Jamestown-SK-Charlestown-Westerly. I guess what I am trying to say is commuting within the populous eastern RI corridor (even from its southern extremity in Newport to the northern reaches of Providence) is much easier than commuting from eastern RI to Western/southwestern RI via public transportation.

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll definitely check it out. I’ve heard so many lovely things about the Wakefield area. I appreciate your input.

Thanks for your comment. I love that you brought up RIC, it is another school that I am considering too. I’m curious, why does RIC draw such negative reactions from people?

Hi there! Thanks for your comment!

Currently, I would only qualify for out of state tuition but I plan to apply in a year and a half, but I am not sure if by then I may be eligible for in state tuition. I’d be open to both on campus or renting a room off campus, though I should note I don’t drive, so living close to campus might be ideal.

I really appreciate you sharing your perspective as a URI student. It means a lot. Thanks for being frank with me about the current reality. It’s disheartening that college remains out of reach without loans, it feels so unfair to students. It’s a shame because URI has a really unique environmental economics program that caught my interest but I don’t know that I could afford it ):

Thank you, I appreciate it a lot (:

This is something I definitely plan on doing, I am going to be extremely diligent and on top of it in regards to applying for as many scholarships as I can.

Thanks for commenting! I appreciate your advice. Hmm, I don’t know that my job would offer that kind of assistance, only because it’s a very small, local company, I think there’s around 10 of us in total. Still, maybe it wouldn’t hurt for me to reach out and ask.

I already have a job and I’ve been lucky enough to get into a decent homeless shelter, and I am also starting to build up my winter wardrobe. At this point, I’m just saving up to rent a room/apartment.

No offense taken, but I have made tremendous improvements in my situation since I became homeless two months ago. Thank you for bringing to my attention that’s it’s past the deadline, I appreciate it.