2026 Best Value Culinary Arts Schools in Rhode Island

[Culinary Arts](/majors/personal-and-culinary-services/culinary-arts/) programs reward a close look at where your money goes furthest. The best values balance affordable tuition against strong post-graduation earnings.
For its 2026 best-value ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools to find the best return on investment for culinary arts students.
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2026 Best Value Culinary Arts Schools in Rhode Island
Below are the schools that deliver the strongest value in culinary arts, balancing cost against outcomes.
Best Value Culinary Arts Schools
Johnson And Wales University Online tops our 2026 list of the best value culinary arts schools in Rhode Island. Set in the city of Providence, Johnson And Wales University Online is a mid-sized private not-for-profit institution. Expect in-state tuition and fees of around $13,365. Culinary Arts graduates carry a median of $27,012 in student loans. Early-career culinary arts graduates make about $27,514. That is a strong return on a $27,012 median debt. Johnson And Wales University Online admits about 91% of applicants.
Johnson And Wales University Providence is a great value for students pursuing a degree in culinary arts, landing the #2 spot this year. Set in the city of Providence, Johnson And Wales University Providence is a mid-sized private not-for-profit institution. The average in-state cost of tuition and fees is $41,982. Students borrow a median of $20,873 to complete the culinary arts program here. Soon after graduation, culinary arts degree recipients from Johnson And Wales University Providence generally make around $30,145. Set against $20,873 in median debt, that is a healthy payoff. The acceptance rate is 88%.
More Culinary Arts Rankings
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Notes and References
This ranking is produced by College Factual (MF_RANKING_2025), 2026 edition. Schools are scored on the balance of cost (tuition and student debt) against student outcomes (post-graduation earnings) — a measure of return on investment, drawn primarily from the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS and College Scorecard).
Ranking method: College Major Best Value · 2 schools evaluated.
*Averages shown above reflect the top 1 ranked schools only.
- The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), serves as the core of our data about colleges.
- Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
More about our data sources and methodologies.