Poets&Quants Top Business Schools

Providence College School of Business

#43

Contact Georgina Hannah with any questions. Profile updated: March 14, 2025.

School Data

Tuition & Fees In-State: $238,314*

Average Salary: $64,556

Graduates With Jobs 90 Days After Graduation: 91%

International: 2%

Minority: 14%

First generation college students: 14%

Acceptance Rate: 54%

Average SAT: 1,315

Average GPA: 3.54

HS Class Top Ten: 29%**

*The total tuition and fees for the most recent graduating class. This does not include books, room, or board.

** HS Class Top Ten is the percent of the student population that graduated high school in the top ten percent of their class.

*** Please note that these statistics are provided for the business school major only whenever possible. If a school does not track these statistics separately, then the university-wide statistics are provided.

The Providence College School of Business (PC Business) finished No. 43 on Poets&Quants’ 2025 ranking of the Best Undergraduate Business Programs in the U.S. In our three methodological categories, it finished No. 44 in Admission Standards, No. 45 in Career Outcomes, and No. 43 in Academic Experience (based solely on our alumni survey).

The B-school’s acceptance rate for the fall 2024 incoming class was 54.4%, and the class also reported an average SAT score of 1370. Its six-year graduation rate is 85.8%.

In career data, 95% of Class of 2023 and 2024 graduates completed at least one business-specific internship before graduation. Some 91.3% of 2024 grads found jobs within three months, compared to 95.8% of 2023 grads.

Average salary for the most recent graduates was $64,556, with 11% of them reporting an average signing bonus of $6,119. The top employers included Fidelity Investments, PwC, Deloitte, ServiceNow, Citizens Financial Group, Santander, ADP, KPMG, Moody’s, MUFG, NetSuite, Seismic, and State Street.

Providence College’s business education strongly emphasizes liberal arts and ethics with an abundance of opportunities to apply their knowledge and obtain relevant, real-world experience.

EMPHASIS ON LIBERAL ARTS AND ETHICS

Liberal arts serve as the foundation for business education at Providence with a strong focus on liberal arts. The curriculum features core focus and competency requirements in addition to linked major and minor course content. Undergraduate business majors at Providence include Accountancy, Finance, Management, and Marketing.

All Providence undergraduates are required to take two years of seminar courses for the Development of Western Civilization Program, where they explore human history through many perspectives — from literature to philosophy to theology to art, and more. 

First-year business students attend diversity and inclusion workshops focused on unconscious bias and working across differences. The workshops are designed to help students learn how to navigate collaborating with people from a variety of backgrounds in the workplace.

Students can also compete in the college’s Michael Smith Regional Ethics Case Competition, where student teams analyze a business ethics case and present their solutions to a panel of judges. The winning team wins a $2,400 prize. 

Beyond academics, PC Business integrates leadership, professional development, and experiential learning into every student’s journey. The Friar Leadership & Immersion Program (FLIP) requires new business students to complete hands-on experiential activities, earning points through an online platform that tracks skills and competencies aligned with NACE standards. Students can showcase these credentials on their résumés and social media profiles to highlight their career readiness.

REAL-WORLD PROJECTS 

Providence students have a number of opportunities to apply their knowledge in real-world scenarios whether through projects or case competitions. 

Marketing students can also participate in the annual American Marketing Association (AMA) Collegiate Case Competition, an event that brings together marketing students to solve and present a case study. Last year’s competition asked students to develop a comprehensive marketing plan targeting Generation Z in an effort to increase membership and relevance among American college students.

“Participating in the AMA Challenge was a prominent part of my senior year and helped me prepare for project management in my career,” one alumni said.

Students interested in finance can participate in the Student Managed Portfolio, where they invest real money from the Providence College endowment. Unlike many student-managed funds, the PCSB Student Managed Portfolio extends to three different classes of assets: equity, fixed income, and alternatives.

RECENT INNOVATIONS

In 2024, PC Business introduced the Careers In… initiative, a collaboration with the Chirico Career Center, designed to help students explore career pathways and industry specializations. The school also launched the Huxley Capital Funded Internship Program, a 10-week summer internship where students gain hands-on experience in multi-asset portfolio management by developing and evaluating real investment portfolios.

PC Business has expanded its focus on data analytics across disciplines. All first-year students must complete the Excel Certification exam as part of the redesigned Data Application for Business course, and finance majors are required to earn Bloomberg certification through the updated Introduction to the Profession course. In 2024, the school partnered with Riipen to integrate course-embedded consulting projects, enhancing real-world learning.

The school has also introduced discipline-specific career pathways within its majors. Accounting students can specialize in public or private accounting, while finance students have tracks in quantitative finance, financial management, investment and wealth management, and risk management. Management students can choose human resources, leadership development, or entrepreneurship and innovation, and marketing students can specialize in business-to-business sales or digital marketing.

All business majors are now required to complete a global internship abroad, ensuring that students graduate with international business experience.

ALUMNI SAY

“With my Management major I got to take Philanthropy and Org Theory with Tom King, so I got to mix my desire to work in the nonprofit industry with my second major in Public and Community Service Studies..”

“As a marketing and finance double major, my Marketing Capstone gave me the opportunity to work on a marketing strategy for a real company, of my group’s collective choosing through which I started to form an idea of what in marketing I could see myself doing — something I didn’t get from courses alone.”

“I had wonderful professors who were always available to help guide me.”

“The business program at Providence College teaches a variety of business skills that are essential to success in business and provide the opportunity to discover which field of business is most interesting to you. I would highly recommend the PC School of Business.”

“Providence College provides an excellent business education combined with a liberal arts education. The liberal arts aspect should not be overlooked – critical thinking and writing are skills everyone needs in business.”

Contact Information

Location:
1 Cunningham Square
Providence, RI 02918
Admissions Office:
401-865-2535
School Social Media:

From Providence College School of Business:

The Liberal Arts Business School

At the Providence College School of Business, we are reshaping the landscape of business education. Our focus extends beyond conventional practices, equipping students with the essential skills to discover common ground, thoughtfully analyze options, and ethically contribute to collaborative solutions. Uniquely positioned as the sole U.S. college established and overseen by Dominican friars, we deeply understand the significance of meaning, connection, and purpose in both business and life. Rooted in the liberal arts, ur students immerse themselves in a dynamic, collaborative, and problem-solving approach, emerging not only as indispensable assets to employers but also experiencing personal fulfillment. And when you graduate, our strong alumni network will put out a welcome mat to the real world.

About Providence College

Founded in 1917, Providence College is the only college or university in the United States administered by the Dominican Friars. Our undergraduate enrollment is approximately 4,000 students and we offer degrees in 52 academic majors and 39 minors. The PC School of Business provides a liberal arts-based business education in four majors and three minors. We are ranked No. 1 in the competitive “Regional Universities North category” according to U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges,” and in the top 50 undergraduate business programs by Poets&Quants for Undergrads. The School of Business is AACSB-accredited, an accomplishment only 30 percent of U.S. business schools achieve.

School spirit runs deep at Providence College. Our athletes compete in the NCAA Division I BIG EAST Conference and Hockey East. Club and intramural sports are popular and sometimes just as intense. PC offers 120+ active clubs and organizations  that are as varied as the interests, career aspirations, and talents of our students.

A Different Kind of Business Education

At the Providence College School of Business, we understand the need for meaning, connection, and purpose in business and life.

The future of business requires people with the skills to find common ground, thoughtfully analyze options, and contribute ethically to solutions together. We teach the power of “we” rather than “me.”

With a dynamic group of energized faculty, a rigorous curriculum, and the state-of-the art Ryan Center for Business Studies, we’re building the business school of the future. Students don’t just learn the foundations of business – they learn a versatile, collaborative, problem-solving approach that makes them indispensable to employers and personally fulfilled.

Our curriculum is uniquely integrated with the liberal arts and grounded in Catholic and Dominican traditions. Not only are PC business students prepared for gratifying lives, they are ready to take on the challenges faced by businesses of all kinds. We know this because we see it every day.

Numerous Experiential Learning Opportunities

The quantitatively-focused, business curriculum is supplemented with a wide expanse of experiential learning opportunities. There are 12 different business clubs, including the newly charted National Association of Black Accountants and the recently established Student Managed Portfolio (SMP), part of the PC Finance Society. Another example of PC’s unique business experiential learning programs is the Benjamin Family Social Media Fellowship. These undergraduate students run the School of Business social media channels, create branding campaigns, and work with alumni mentors from top companies such as Facebook and Google.  In addition, all business students who study abroad — and over half of them do — complete an in-country internship, giving them hands-on international business experience in places such as Rome, China, Australia, London, Ireland, South Africa, Chile, and more.

PC students consistently apply what they have learned in the classroom and through these experiential programs in powerful ways. In recent years, our students have taken top honors in national competitions in accountancy, business ethics, and marketing. They’ve started entrepreneurial ventures. They’ve created mentoring programs. They’ve launched businesses that share profits with impoverished villages half a world away. They’ve conducted research that improves the learning experience for their classmates. They’ve landed coveted internships at some of the most renowned financial, accounting, marketing, and banking firms in the country.

From Discovery to Mission

To help them with their journey of discovery, PC business students are encouraged to explore a variety of careers through the Friar Leadership and Immersion Program. In addition, the Chirico Career Center hosts workshops to develop professional skills and career readiness. The close-knit culture of the Providence College campus extends well beyond graduation and students are supported by a vibrant and dedicated alumni community.

As a result of all the special resources of Providence College, when it comes time to take their next steps after graduation, PC School of Business students find themselves well-positioned for and well-received by a variety of business sectors and top graduate schools. Our graduates approach the job market and their careers as insightful, ethical professionals whose knowledge, experience, and self-awareness set them apart from their peers.

Learn More

Explore all that Providence College has to offer or learn more about the Providence College School of Business to start discovering what doors PC can open for you.