What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$12,634 to $28,125 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $31,638 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $17,382.Aid and debt
34.9%
receive need-based grants
$34,211
average debt at graduation
7,491
students got merit aid
about 24% of undergraduates
$4,665
average merit award
Getting In
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1200–1360 · 32% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 26–32 · 15% of the class submitted
31.3% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- GPA
- Important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Class rank
- SAT/ACT scores
- Considered
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Not considered
- Character
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
South Carolina rates course rigor as Important.
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AP, IB, and dual-enrollment classes strengthen an application here — a strong mix of them helps.
South Carolina doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
South Carolina just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-South Carolina essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
34.1% of South Carolina classes have fewer than 20 students.
34.1%
under 20 students
49.7%
20 to 49
16.2%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. South Carolina CDS 2025–26, I-3.
19:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
46.5%
first-years from out of state
31.36%
live on campus
26.79%
of men in fraternities
34.1%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White70.5%
- Black10.7%
- Hispanic7.3%
- Multiracial4.6%
- Asian4.2%
- Unknown / other0.9%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. South Carolina CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
70.6% of South Carolina students graduate in 4 years.
70.6%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
78.7%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
92.3%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
68.9% finish in 6 years, against 78.7% of all students.
A 9.8-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
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.
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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.
The City
Mid-size city
Columbia, SC
Best For
Notable alumni
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.
Traditions
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 from Columbia
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 and game days
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
Internships and jobs nearby
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
Who Thrives Here
South Carolina is a 31,845-undergraduate campus in downtown Columbia where Greek life is a genuine organizing force — 27% of men and 34% of women join — and only 31% 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: 34.1% 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 $34,200, so an out-of-state family facing roughly $38,500 in tuition and fees is carrying most of that gap itself — run the net price calculator before falling for the gameday.