Welcome First-Year Applicants

Temporary Implementation of Pass/Fail Grading Policies at Secondary Schools

RWU will review each application on a case-by-case basis to understand the school’s policy on pass/fail grading and how it impacts the reported GPA. As always, we review applications in context – we consider your school and community environment, the rigor of your curriculum and what is available to you, and your life, involvements, and responsibilities outside of the classroom. With pass/fail grading, we will consider all of the above and pay particular attention to your previous performance and any contextual information shared in your letters of recommendation and/or the writing sections of the application. Secondary school GPA is a significant factor in our merit scholarship review, therefore, we will consider whether any adjustments need to made for equitable scholarship consideration if your GPA has been negatively impacted by a pass/fail year or semester.

Ultimately, no student will be penalized in our admission review for having pass/fail grading if your school implemented this policy due to the pandemic. 

Standardized Test Availability Limitations

RWU has been test-optional for a decade. Test scores are not required for admission, merit scholarships, or Honors Program consideration. Test scores have always played a minor role in our admission review. We understand that COVID caused testing delays. Those students will not be penalized in any way in our review process. 

Limited Activities due to COVID

While RWU values involvement outside of the classroom as an indication of a well-rounded, capable, and prepared college student, we also understand that many students were unable to participate in their intended activities over the last few years due to COVID. We will review your involvements in this context, and encourage you to share with us how your ability to participate was impacted.

Demonstrated Interest

The admission committee strives to admit students who are excited about RWU and have likelihood to enroll. Our early action and regular decision admission processes are need-blind. We consider applicants’ engagement with us throughout the process including attendance at in-person and virtual events, responsiveness to outreach, connections at high school visits and college fairs, participation in informational interviews, and other proactive outreach. The inability to visit our campus in-person will not penalize any student in our admission review.

The Common Application added an opportunity for applicants to share the ways they have been affected by the pandemic. This is an optional question and by no means to we expect everyone to share statement here. It goes without saying that everyone has been impacted by the pandemic in different ways, and we review applications with an appreciation for this. However, if you have been impacted in a significant way, or have a story related to the pandemic that you’d like to share to help us better understand and appreciate your situation you are certainly welcome to share this with us in that section.

• Official – Official credentials are those that are sent directly from the responsible institution. For example, an official transcript is sent directly from the secondary school or college whereas an unofficial transcript is a copy or downloaded version submitted by the applicant. Official test scores are sent directly from the testing agency whereas self-reported test scores are shared by the applicant.
• Holistic – An admission review that considers all aspects of the applicant including both academic and personal qualities. A holistic review considers academic performance in the context of curriculum, school, and environment. It also considers involvements and responsibilities outside of the classroom, personal qualities and achievements, and the information shared through letters of recommendation.
• Complete Application – An application is complete when the application itself as well as all required supporting credentials have been received. Each applicant is responsible for ensuring that credentials that are sent directly from their school, recommender, and/or testing agency are received. Students may log into their applicant portal (instructions are provided as soon as the application is received) to check on the status of their credentials.
• Credential – A piece of information that supplements the admission application. Credentials include transcripts, test scores, letters of recommendation, auditions, portfolios, senior grades, etc. 

RWU Travel Grant

Beyond tuition, room, and board, we know that many other factors impact the total cost of affording a college. For families from farther away, the purchase of flights to and from home over breaks will mean increased cost in choosing RWU. RWU is sensitive to the total cost of an education that families may face, including transportation, books, and other expenses. Therefore, starting in fall 2020, to support our out-of-region enrolled students, we created a special Travel Grant for students from states and countries outside of the U.S. northeast. This grant is awarded to all qualified students in addition to merit scholarships awarded at time of admission (with the exception of full-tuition scholarship recipients). Students meeting the geographic criteria will automatically qualify for this award.

Given the unique academic environments in which home-schooled applicants are educated and the varying factors on which they’re assessed, it is important to apply a similarly unique review to their applications so we may best understand the achievements and abilities of these prospective students.  It is important that we capture and consider academic assessment practices, grading criteria and scales, variances in curricular structure and rigor, indications of personal and social preparedness, access (or limitations) to extracurricular activities, and many other factors.  As such, any information that home-schooled students, families, or educators can provide to share context in any of these areas adds great value to our review process. Frequently, home-schooled students provide synopses of their academic experience to provide perspectives on their home-schooled, online or collaborative home-schooling environments. 
 
Some home-schooled applicants opt to submit supporting academic credentials such as AP/IB exam scores, transcripts from community colleges or other college-level coursework, or standardized test scores.  It should be noted; however, that none of these are required by the application process, and absent these, students may still be offered admission to the University.
 
Admission interviews may be recommended at the discretion of the reviewer or admission committee (especially in a case in which none of the supporting academic credentials listed above are presented for review), but will be offered to any home-schooled student who requests to do so.  Admission interviews may be held any time from spring of the student’s junior year into their senior year.  Interviews may be conducted in-person, by video conference, or over the phone.  Home-schooled students may contact the Office of Admission to request an interview.

At RWU, we form a community to help you succeed and adjust to life in the U.S. We welcome students, like you, from all over the world and help them each step of the way. We value what you add to our community and are focused on your success. To aid you, we provide a range of services that includes peer mentors and support groups.

Learn More

¿Necesita ayuda? Haz una cita con Keane para ayudarte con el proceso. 

Regístrese para reunirse conmigo. (Schedule a time to meet with me.)

If your application, along with all supporting documents, are received by the deadline date to which you are applying, your admission decision notification will be sent as outlined below.

A portfolio of two and/or three-dimensional work demonstrating evidence of an applicant’s creative potential is required for all applicants for admission to the B.S. in Architecture program.  The intent of the portfolio requirement is twofold—to offer applicants some idea of activities you will be engaged in as an architecture student, and to allow the school to begin to estimate your emerging potential at this earliest stage of your architectural education. Consistent with the mission of our program, Roger Williams University is interested in and celebrates the variety of expression that applicants demonstrate. Applicants come from a variety of backgrounds, and we appreciate this variety as a basis for beginning the study architecture at the college level.

The portfolio should consist of 8-12 examples of the applicant’s work, each piece clearly labeled. Your work should be submitted through SlideRoom at this address: 
 

Your work portfolio should be submitted through one of the following:  

• SlideRoom at this address: https://rwu.slideroom.com/#/Login 
• Email to admit@rwu.edu with the subject line ‘Portfolio’ 
• Mail in a simple 8-1/2” x 11” binder to: 

Office of Undergraduate Admissions  
Roger Williams University  
One Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI 02809.

The portfolio should contain reproductions of two and three-dimensional work recently executed in high school art course work, independent works by the applicant, or summer programs in Art or Architecture that you may have completed. High quality black + white copies and color copies as relevant to the work are acceptable.

RWU Dance & Performance Studies Program Audition Information

Apply now for fall 2022.

While Roger Williams University is a test-optional institution, students applying to the Elementary and Secondary Education programs are required to submit either SAT or ACT scores in accordance with Rhode Island Department of Education guidelines for direct entry by the end of their college sophomore year. The Rhode Island Department of Education standardized test minimums are as follows:

Students who are unable to test, or do not meet the requirements through SAT or ACT scores may still qualify for these programs by taking an alternative academic skills exam or through faculty approval.

Students who do not meet these thresholds at the time of application may be considered for admission as an undeclared education student until they attain the necessary scores or meet alternative requirements.

In addition, applicants to the Secondary Education program must select one of the following additional majors within the Feinstein College of Arts and Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, English, Modern Languages, History, and double major in Dance Performance Studies and Secondary Education.