Graduate Application FAQs

Completing a Graduate Application on CollegeNET

Before you can submit a Graduate Application to RIC for the first time, you'll need to sign up for an account with CollegeNET, the application hosting service affiliated with RIC. Once you have a CollegeNET account, you'll be able to log in any time and see your application status in the "Your Activity" area. This area is a personalized status page that shows applications you've started, (so that you can continue your work on any in-progress), as well as those that you've already submitted.

CollegeNET: Best Practices and Common Questions

Once you have a CollegeNET account, you can begin filling out a school application. You can either complete the application and submit it in one sitting, or save your work and continue it at a later time. When filling out your application:

  • to save what you have done so far without exiting, click the Save button.
  • to save and exit, click the Finish Session or Save and Exit button.
  • to access an application in progress and continue your work on it, either go to Your Activity and select the application, or access the application directly from the school's website.

Check your work carefully. When you are satisfied with it and are ready to send it to us, click the send button at the bottom of the last page. This saves your answers in their final form and takes you to the payment page where you pay your application fee online (or apply for a fee waiver, if that option is available).

Note: Your application is not fully submitted until you pay your application fee and it has been authorized (see below), or until you have submitted a fee waiver request and it was granted.

  1. Navigate to the Create Account CollegeNET page
  2. Enter your account information exactly as instructed.
  3. Click the submit button at the bottom of the page.

Please Note: Be sure to keep a record of your username and password, as you will need it to access applications in progress, or to check your application status.

If you have already have a CollegeNET account you can:

  1. go to the RIC-specific CollegeNet Landing page
  2. login with your credentials
  3. click on "Online Graduate Studies Application"

If you've begun your application and it is in-progress you can access it from the "Your Activity" area:

  1. go to the RIC-specific CollegeNet Landing page
  2. login with your credentials
  3. click on "Your Activity"

On the payment page, you can pay your application fee by debit/credit card or check (note that electronic checks must be from US bank accounts only). If paying by check please refer to the How to Pay by Check instructions.

Please Note: Once payment is authorized, your application is final, and you can no longer make changes to it.

Your debit/credit card information is encrypted during transmission from your browser to our server and during payment authorization. None of your debit/credit card information is stored in our database.

The information you enter is encrypted and secure when you save it and when you send it. Although general data collected on the system may be used in statistical studies and reports designed to assist institutions with planning, any information bearing your personal identification is disclosed only to the department to which you send it.

Check Your Activity to print a copy of your form or to learn if we have received it.

When you save or transmit application information, a note appears in Your Activity. You can easily check this area at any time to see your application activity and to learn when we have acknowledged receipt of your form. Just log into your CollegeNET account and select "Your Activity."

Yes, the server stores all information you enter under the private username and password you establish.

Close your browser. This ends your secure connection and clears your password (unless you chose to save it).

No. You do not have to complete an application in one sitting. For example, you can start working on an application at your library's computer facility, save your work, access the application at home on your personal computer, and continue working from there. Wherever you have access to the internet, you have access to the information you have saved.

When you complete more than one application, common information you provided on the first form is entered automatically in all subsequent ones. For example, if you have entered your name and address on an application and saved it, that information will be entered automatically on the next application you access (assuming, of course, that the next form also has name and address fields). If you change information on one form, it is also changed on any other unsubmitted ones.

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Office of Graduate Studies

We support our students, mostly working professionals, as they manage career, family, and graduate school. We offer one of the most affordable master’s degrees in the Northeast, creating pathways to new professional options and career advancement.