Clemson University Overview

Clemson University is a public institution situated in Clemson, South Carolina. The suburban atmosphere of Clemson makes it a great place for students who want the amenities of city life without actually living in the middle of a constant hustle and bustle.

What Is Clemson University Known For?

• The student loan default rate at Clemson is 3%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at Clemson.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 93% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from Clemson makes roughly $52,400 a year. This is 28% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.

Clemson University Rankings

Clemson landed the #283 spot in our 2022 ranking of best colleges. We analyzed 2,587 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation. It is also ranked #3 out of 51 schools in South Carolina.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Clemson.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Recreation Administration Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Other Foreign Language & Literature Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#5	Best Industrial Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#31	Best Design & Applied Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#40	Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#50	Best Public & Social Service Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#54	Best Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#85	Best Computer & Information Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#101	Best Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#178	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Clemson has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#1	Best Foreign Language, Literature & Linguistics (Other) Schools	College Factual
#25	Best Family, Consumer & Human Sciences Schools	College Factual
#26	Best Engineering Technologies Schools	College Factual
#31	Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools	College Factual
#99	Best Computer Science Schools	Computer Science Degree
#138	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual

Where Is Clemson University?

Contact details for Clemson are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	201 Sikes Hall, Clemson, SC 29634
Phone:	864-656-4636
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/clemsonuniv
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/clemsonuniv

How Do I Get Into Clemson?

You can apply to Clemson online at: www.clemson.edu/admissions/undergraduate/index.html

Admission Requirements for Clemson

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	considered but not required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	neither required nor recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Clemson?

With an acceptance rate of 62%, Clemson does not let just anybody through their doors! Make sure you spend enough time polishing up your application so you will make a great impression.

Approximately 43% of accepted students are men and 57% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 63%, and the acceptance rate for women is 62%.

Average Test Scores

About 59% of students accepted to Clemson submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 610 and 690. Math scores were between 600 and 700.

Clemson received ACT scores from 41% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 26 and 34. Math scores were between 25 and 30. Composite scores were between 27 and 32.

Can I Afford Clemson University?

The overall average net price of Clemson is $44,594. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Clemson, approximately 39% of students took out student loans averaging $10,001 a year. That adds up to $40,004 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Clemson is 3.1%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Clemson University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 20,868 undergraduate students at Clemson, with 20,021 being full-time and 847 being part-time.

There are also 5,538 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 20,021 full-time undergraduates at Clemson, 50% are male and 50% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Clemson University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	532
Black or African American	1,149
Hispanic or Latino	1,198
White	16,083
International Students	103
Other Races/Ethnicities	956

Geographic Diversity

South Carolina students aren't the only ones who study at Clemson University. At this time, 42 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 89 countries are represented at Clemson. The most popular countries sending students to the school are India, China, and Iran.

Online Learning at Clemson University

In 2019-2020, 22,531 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Clemson has changed over the last few years.

This school is the most popular in South Carolina for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of Clemson

The following table shows how Clemson is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Agricultural Production	#7	#7
General Biology	#13	#16
Writing Studies	#16	#31
Recreation Administration	#22	#22
Computational Science	#26	#26
Engineering	#28	#34
Biological & Biomedical Sciences	#31	#31
Civil Engineering	#46	#49
Human Development & Family Studies	#46	#63
Agriculture & Agriculture Operations	#52	#52
Industrial Engineering	#55	#60
Electrical Engineering	#64	#70
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	#73	#96

Online Growth Rankings of Clemson

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Clemson University was 38.0%. This is the #787 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Clemson regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of Clemson majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Business Administration & Management	9%
Business, Management & Marketing	9%
Civil Engineering	4%
Computer & Information Sciences	12%
Construction Management	15%
Education	6%
Health & Physical Education	24%
Health Professions	16%
Nursing	15%
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies	0%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at Clemson ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at Clemson.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies	#4
Computational Science	#4
Construction Management	#10
Civil Engineering	#19
Computer Programming	#35
Homeland Security	#43
Health & Physical Education	#64
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies	#70
Engineering	#76
Human Development & Family Studies	#79
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	#97
Instructional Media Design	#98
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies	#166
Nursing	#265
Computer & Information Sciences	#305
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting	#306
Education	#432

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Clemson University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Basic Certificate	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Business Administration & Management	1	379	21	212	4	617
General Biology	0	275	0	120	4	399
Industrial Engineering	83	159	0	106	5	353
Marketing	37	269	0	26	0	332
General Psychology	0	303	0	0	0	303
Mechanical Engineering	0	228	0	59	7	294
Nursing	0	207	0	43	6	256
Accounting	0	143	0	96	0	239
Computer Information Systems	0	157	0	59	10	226
Civil Engineering	0	138	16	55	13	222
Finance & Financial Management	0	207	0	0	0	207
Recreation Administration	0	123	1	48	14	186
Biomedical Engineering	0	117	3	48	12	180
Economics	0	133	0	12	14	159
General Education	0	0	0	149	0	149
Animal Science	0	124	0	0	0	124
Electrical Engineering	3	75	0	23	8	109
Other Health Professions	21	86	0	0	0	107
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	102	0	0	0	102
Political Science & Government	0	97	0	0	0	97
Design & Applied Arts	0	82	0	10	0	92
General English Literature	0	81	0	10	0	91
Agricultural Economics & Business	0	82	0	4	0	86
Writing Studies	0	79	0	6	0	85
Student Counseling	0	0	27	55	0	82
Chemical Engineering	0	66	0	4	10	80
Mathematics	0	45	0	25	10	80
Construction Management	0	69	2	7	0	78
General Architecture	0	75	2	0	0	77
Engineering-Related Fields	0	66	0	4	6	76
Other Engineering	3	0	6	57	5	71
Computer Engineering	0	65	0	3	1	69
Food Science Technology	0	60	0	7	1	68
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	24	0	41	0	65
Criminology	0	64	0	0	0	64
History	0	55	0	8	0	63
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	0	60	0	0	1	61
Microbiological Sciences & Immunology	0	57	0	2	2	61
Genetics	0	55	1	0	4	60
Public Administration	0	0	11	43	0	54
Sociology	0	52	0	0	0	52
Materials Engineering	0	38	0	6	6	50
Human Development & Family Studies	0	0	19	15	10	44
Environmental Engineering	0	27	0	8	6	41
Architectural Sciences & Technology	0	0	0	40	0	40
Chemistry	0	22	0	5	13	40
Agricultural Production	0	38	0	0	0	38
Health & Physical Education	0	0	0	38	0	38
Foreign Language, Literature & Linguistics (Other)	0	36	0	0	0	36
Public Relations & Advertising	0	32	1	0	0	33
Public Health	14	0	0	16	3	33
Forestry	0	28	0	3	2	33
Landscape Architecture	0	25	0	5	0	30
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	0	30	0	0	0	30
Plant Sciences	0	11	0	15	3	29
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	28	0	28
Educational Administration	0	0	3	7	18	28
Romance Languages	0	27	0	0	0	27
Special Education	0	12	0	10	4	26
Natural Resources Conservation	0	26	0	0	0	26
Wildlife Management	0	0	0	25	1	26
Physics	0	11	0	4	11	26
Information Science	0	24	0	0	0	24
Agricultural Engineering	0	22	0	1	1	24
Other Visual Art	0	23	0	0	0	23
Real Estate	0	0	0	22	0	22
Geological & Earth Sciences	0	14	0	8	0	22
Fine & Studio Arts	0	16	0	6	0	22
Communication & Media Studies	0	0	0	14	5	19
Ethnic Studies	0	16	0	0	0	16
Environmental Design	0	0	0	8	5	13
Philosophy	0	13	0	0	0	13
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	0	8	5	13
Soil Sciences	0	12	0	0	0	12
Urban & Regional Planning	0	0	0	10	0	10
Zoology	0	0	0	6	4	10
Medical Science	0	0	10	0	0	10
Anthropology	0	9	0	0	0	9
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	0	9	0	0	0	9
Computer Programming	0	0	0	7	0	7
Health/Medical Prep Programs	0	7	0	0	0	7
Religious Studies	0	7	0	0	0	7
Historic Preservation	0	0	0	6	0	6
Homeland Security	0	0	5	0	0	5
Horticulture	0	4	0	0	0	4
Pharmacology & Toxicology	0	0	0	1	3	4
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	0	4	4
Other Social Sciences	0	0	0	3	0	3
Public Policy	0	0	0	0	3	3
General Sales & Marketing	2	0	0	0	0	2
Other Education	0	0	0	0	2	2
Medical Illustration & Informatics	0	0	0	1	1	2
Educational Assessment	0	0	0	0	1	1
Other Psychology	0	0	0	0	1	1
Agricultural Public Services	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other Agriculture	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	0	0	0	0	0	0
Instructional Media Design	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ceramic Engineering	0	0	0	0	0	0
General Engineering	0	0	0	0	0	0
Manufacturing Engineering	0	0	0	0	0	0
Systems Engineering	0	0	0	0	0	0
American Sign Language	0	0	0	0	0	0
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0
Behavioral Science	0	0	0	0	0	0
Computational Science	0	0	0	0	0	0
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	164	4,998	128	1,668	249	7,207

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By hager.angie under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.