About RISD

students walking on the sidewalk in front of the red brick Waterman Building on RISD’s campus

RISD is a nonprofit college and museum founded in 1877 in the city of Providence, RI. Today 2,606 students from 62 countries engage in more than 40 full-time bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, supported by a committed faculty and worldwide network of more than 33,000 alumni.

By cultivating expansive and elastic thinking, RISD equips artists, designers and scholars to generate and challenge the ideas that shape our world.

Student-to-faculty ratio

8:1

Average class size

15

Undergraduate students (2025–26)

2,163

Graduate students (2025–26)

443

Domestic students of color (undergraduate, 2024–25)

44%

International students (undergraduate, 2024–25)

33%

Retention Rate

95%

Graduation Rate

89%

Want more information? Explore our fact book.

For detailed data regarding admissions, enrollment, diversity, finances and more, you can search the online RISD fact book, which is updated regularly by our Institutional Effectiveness office.

Access our interactive fact book

Our history

Started by a group of women well before any woman had the right to vote in the US, RISD has always embraced art and design’s capacity to stoke curiosity and spur progress.

historical black and white image of people sketching at easels

Learn more about our history

Strategic plan

How can RISD’s unique approach to learning, thinking and making evolve in the 21st century? Our strategic plan outlines the ways our current creative practices respond to the most critical social, political and environmental challenges we face today.