Providence College - Student Life

Student Life

The Providence College student population is made up of about 3,852 undergraduates and 735 postgraduate students. As of 2012, 58 percent of the student body is female, while 42 percent is male. The student population is drawn mostly from the southern New England states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York, New Jersey, and other Mid-Atlantic states. About one-third of incoming students attended Catholic high schools.

A 2007 survey published by The Princeton Review rated Providence College as having the most homogeneous student population in the country, as well as ranking the college eighth nationally in the survey's "little race/class interaction" category. As of 2012, 88 percent of the student body is white or unreported, while only four percent of students come from outside of the United States. In 2011, President Brian Shanley created an Office of Institutional Diversity, while hiring a Chief Diversity Officer, to "help balance the College's socioeconomic representation."

While 95 percent of the student population are residents, 17 percent live in nearby off-campus housing. With the exception of Aquinas Hall, all dormitories are single-sex, and all students living on campus must comply with "parietals," which limit visitation hours of opposite-sex students in dormitories.

As of 2011, Providence College is ranked first in the country by The Princeton Review in the "Lots of Hard Liquor" category.