It is widely known that there exists a strong relationship between the solvent, including co-solutes (e.g. cations), and RNA that cooperatively defines the kinetics and thermodynamics of tertiary structure formation. In addition, small organic molecules, also known as osmolytes (Urea, TMAO, sugar alcohols, etc.), can have significant affects on RNA structure formation. Here, the kinetics of two tertiary structural motifs, a GAAA tetraloop-receptor and a kissing loop-loop interaction, are measured in the presence of various sugar alcohols (methanol, ethylene glycol, glycerol, etc.) at the single molecule level. As the size of the sugar alcohol is increased systematically from methanol to sorbitol the net thermodynamic effect changes from stabilizing (ΔΔG 0). This trend is reflected in the m-values, or per molal change in free energy, where Mmethanol = −0.2 kcal/mole∗m and Msorbitol = +0.3 kcal/mole∗m. In the case of glycerol, where Mglycerol ∼ 0, the RNA solvation is most similar to that of water, thus there is no preferential interaction with either the folded, unfolded or transition states. In the absence of strong chemical interaction, an explicit inverse viscosity dependence (1/η) is observed in both the folding and unfolding directions, as described by Kramers' rate theory. These results indicate that the RNA free energy surface, including the transition state, is minimally perturbed by glycerol, and the major effect on folding is a reduction in kinetics due to increased friction felt by the RNA.