At a Glance
South Carolina admits 60.2% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Shown at in-state rates.
Debt at Graduation
35%
receive need-based grant aid
$31,501
average debt at graduation
South Carolina graduates carry an average of $31,501 in debt.
Merit Aid
5,822
students received merit aid
$4,821
average merit award
Getting In
South Carolina admits 60.2% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 29% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 15% of the class submitted
29% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University of South Carolina gives essays less weight than many schools — academics drive most admissions decisions here. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
34% of South Carolina classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At South Carolina, 34% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2024–25, Section I-3 (class sizes)
19:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
46.8%
Live on campus
29%
Men in fraternities
30%
Women in sororities
36%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
South Carolina's student body is 71.8% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
South Carolina graduates 69.8% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
South Carolina graduates 69.8% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
South Carolina
69.8%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $31,638*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2024–25, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
79%
Overall 6-yr rate
69%
Pell recipient rate
A 10 point graduation gap between lower-income and overall students suggests financial or academic challenges for some students.
Freshman Retention
92%
92% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Columbia.
The university sits in downtown Columbia, South Carolina's capital, with the State House a few blocks from the historic Horseshoe. This is a campus embedded in a working city rather than a college town built around it — government offices, courts and a business district are the immediate neighbours, and the Congaree River and its riverwalk are on the western edge. Columbia is hot: summers run long and humid, which shapes the calendar as much as the academic one does.
Notable Alumni
Alex English
Basketball Hall of Famer and the most prolific scorer of the 1980s, with 25,613 career NBA points and eight All-Star selections. He averaged 22.6 points and 10.3 rebounds as a senior here, and his number 22 is one of only a handful the school has retired.
Class of 1976
Jim Hoagland
Washington Post journalist who won two Pulitzer Prizes — the first in 1971 for international reporting on apartheid in South Africa, the second in 1991 for commentary. He took his journalism degree here.
Class of 1961
Leeza Gibbons
Television host and producer, best known for Entertainment Tonight and her own daytime programme. She graduated magna cum laude in journalism.
Class of 1982
Darius Rucker
Founded Hootie & the Blowfish here in 1986 with fellow students; the band's debut sold more than 20 million copies. He later built a second career as a country solo artist and remains closely identified with the university.
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
Mid-size city
Columbia, SC
Best For
Traditions
The Horseshoe
The oldest part of campus and its centre of gravity: a brick-paved, horseshoe-shaped quad of early nineteenth-century buildings behind iron gates, laid out when the college opened in 1801. It is where students study on the grass, where commencement photographs are taken, and the one part of a large modern campus that still looks like 1805.
The Cockaboose Railroad
Twenty-two real train cabooses parked on a siding behind the south end zone of Williams-Brice Stadium, bought and fitted out as private tailgating suites after a Columbia developer paved the way in 1990. There is nothing quite like it anywhere else in college football, and 'railgating' entered the local vocabulary because of it.
Sandstorm
Darude's 2000 trance track has been played at Williams-Brice since 2009, and the whole stadium — 77,000 people — waves white towels through it. It is the single loudest thing about a Gamecock home game and the first tradition most visitors are warned about.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Columbia
Charleston
2 hoursThe obvious escape: the historic peninsula, the beaches at Folly and Sullivan's Island, and the best restaurant scene in the state, all an easy drive southeast.
Lake Murray
30 minutesA 50,000-acre reservoir on Columbia's doorstep with boat ramps, swimming and shoreline parks — the standard warm-weather afternoon for students with access to a car.
Asheville & the Blue Ridge Mountains
3 hours 30 minutesNorth into the mountains for hiking, the Blue Ridge Parkway in autumn, and a genuine change of temperature from a Columbia summer.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Columbia Metropolitan (CAE)
20 minutes from campus
For international flights: Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) — about 1 hour 30 minutes by road.
Pro sports nearby
- Carolina Panthers NFL
- Charlotte Hornets NBA
Career Proximity
Being in the state capital is the practical advantage here: the legislature, the state agencies and the courts are within walking distance of campus, which makes term-time internships in government, law and policy unusually easy to hold down.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- State of South Carolina
- Prisma Health
- BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina
- Colonial Life
- Nephron Pharmaceuticals
- Fort Jackson
Downtown Columbia, walking distance
Who Thrives Here
South Carolina is a 30,187-undergraduate campus in downtown Columbia where Greek life is a genuine organizing force — 30% of men and 36% of women join — and only 29% of undergraduates live on campus, so most students are in apartments around the city well before they graduate. Classes are sized like the large flagship it is: 34.0% enrol fewer than 20 students against a 19-to-1 student-faculty ratio, which rewards students who go and find their professors rather than wait to be noticed. The money deserves the hard look. South Carolina meets 60% of demonstrated need and graduates leave owing about $31,500, so an out-of-state family facing roughly $37,400 in tuition and fees is carrying most of that gap itself — run the net price calculator before falling for the gameday.