University of South Carolina - Columbia Overview

Located in Columbia, South Carolina, University of South Carolina - Columbia is a public institution. The city atmosphere of Columbia makes it a great place for students who enjoy having lots of educational and entertainment options.

What Is University of South Carolina - Columbia Known For?

• The student loan default rate at UofSC 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.
• The highest award offered at UofSC is the doctor's degree.
• In 2017-2018, 71% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from UofSC makes roughly $44,900 a year. This is 10% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• It takes the average UofSC student 4.2 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

University of South Carolina - Columbia Rankings

UofSC landed the #436 spot in our 2022 ranking of best colleges. We analyzed 2,587 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. UofSC also holds the #5 spot on the Best Colleges in South Carolina ranking.

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 UofSC.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#9	Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Health & Physical Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#16	Best Human Resource Management Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#19	Best Managerial Economics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#21	Best International Business Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#21	Best Dance Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#61	Best Nursing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#77	Best Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#104	Best Business Administration & Management Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#125	Best Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#16	Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Schools	College Factual
#16	Best Health & Physical Education Schools	College Factual
#21	Best International Business Schools	College Factual
#68	Best Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting Schools	College Factual
#135	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#146	Best Nursing Schools	Nursing Degree Search

Where Is University of South Carolina - Columbia?

Contact details for UofSC are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	Columbia-Campus, Columbia, SC 29208
Phone:	803-777-7000
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/uofsc
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/UofSC

How Do I Get Into UofSC?

You can apply to UofSC online at: www.sc.edu/apply/index.php

Admission Requirements for UofSC

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	recommended
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 UofSC?

UofSC has an acceptance rate of 68%, which means it is fairly selective. Take that into account when you are working on your application and gathering requested materials. Do what you can to stand out among other applicants.

Approximately 42% of accepted students are men and 58% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 70%, and the acceptance rate for women is 67%.

Average Test Scores

About 61% of students accepted to UofSC submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 580 and 670. Math scores were between 560 and 670.

UofSC received ACT scores from 38% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 23 and 33. Math scores were between 23 and 28. Composite scores were between 25 and 31.

Can I Afford University of South Carolina - Columbia?

The overall average net price of UofSC is $41,430. 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

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At UofSC, approximately 48% of students took out student loans averaging $9,214 a year. That adds up to $36,856 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at UofSC is 3.3%. 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.

University of South Carolina - Columbia Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 27,271 undergraduate students at UofSC, with 26,174 being full-time and 1,097 being part-time.

There are also 8,199 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 26,174 full-time undergraduates at UofSC, 46% are male and 54% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of University of South Carolina - Columbia students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	989
Black or African American	2,223
Hispanic or Latino	1,380
White	19,559
International Students	656
Other Races/Ethnicities	1,367

Geographic Diversity

South Carolina students aren't the only ones who study at University of South Carolina - Columbia. At this time, 44 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 108 countries are represented at UofSC. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and Saudi Arabia.

Online Learning at University of South Carolina - Columbia

In 2019-2020, 33,092 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

This school is the 2nd 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 UofSC

The following table shows how UofSC 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
Applied Mathematics	#1	#1
Nuclear Engineering	#7	#10
Chemical Engineering	#13	#16
Journalism	#15	#18
Communication Sciences	#37	#37
Civil Engineering	#40	#40
Mathematics & Statistics	#40	#40
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	#40	#43
Medical Illustration & Informatics	#46	#53
Computer Science	#46	#70
Computer Engineering	#49	#55
Electrical Engineering	#52	#61
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	#52	#73
Mechanical Engineering	#55	#58
Communication & Journalism	#69	#87

Online Growth Rankings of UofSC

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at University of South Carolina - Columbia was 209.7%. This is the #270 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at UofSC regardless of major.

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

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Health Professions	10%
Nursing	5%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at UofSC 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 UofSC.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Instructional Media Design	#19
Nursing	#44
Health & Medical Administrative Services	#61
Education	#97
Health Professions	#157

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%.

University of South Carolina - Columbia Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Basic Certificate	Associate’s	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Finance & Financial Management	0	0	536	0	0	0	536
Nursing	0	0	239	12	244	18	513
Business Administration & Management	0	0	290	0	176	15	481
Public Health	0	0	399	0	42	36	477
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	260	165	0	0	425
Marketing	0	0	374	0	0	0	374
General Biology	0	0	279	6	20	23	328
Child Development & Psychology	0	0	308	0	1	4	313
Health & Physical Education	0	0	241	0	36	5	282
Public Relations & Advertising	0	0	243	3	0	0	246
Social Work	0	0	27	10	196	3	236
Physiology & Pathology Sciences	0	0	212	0	3	10	225
Mechanical Engineering	0	0	186	0	21	12	219
International Business	0	0	143	1	62	0	206
Hospitality Management	0	0	195	0	6	3	204
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	176	0	27	0	203
Law	0	0	0	0	0	202	202
Accounting	0	0	147	0	50	0	197
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	0	0	84	0	0	109	193
Criminal Justice & Corrections	0	0	186	0	5	0	191
Medicine	0	0	0	0	0	187	187
Computer Information Systems	0	0	185	0	0	0	185
Political Science & Government	0	0	177	0	1	7	185
General Sales & Marketing	0	0	166	0	1	0	167
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	4	150	0	0	0	154
Music	13	0	64	3	24	21	125
Insurance	0	0	122	0	0	0	122
Library & Information Science	0	0	0	3	116	1	120
Civil Engineering	0	0	88	2	6	9	105
History	0	0	79	0	4	11	94
General English Literature	0	0	79	0	8	4	91
Allied Health Professions	0	0	46	0	44	0	90
Journalism	0	0	76	0	13	0	89
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	0	0	87	0	2	0	89
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	0	0	54	0	20	12	86
Chemistry	0	0	48	0	8	28	84
Student Counseling	0	0	0	49	27	2	78
Business/Managerial Economics	0	0	72	0	0	0	72
Economics	0	0	66	0	4	2	72
Communication & Media Studies	0	0	69	0	0	2	71
Chemical Engineering	0	0	59	0	3	6	68
Fine & Studio Arts	0	0	61	0	7	0	68
Educational Administration	0	0	0	2	43	13	58
Communication Sciences	0	0	0	0	53	4	57
Natural Resources Conservation	0	0	57	0	0	0	57
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	0	0	54	54
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	0	0	52	0	0	0	52
Mathematics	0	0	33	0	5	14	52
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	0	0	51	0	0	0	51
General Education	0	0	0	0	48	2	50
Biomedical Engineering	0	0	40	0	5	3	48
Computer Engineering	0	0	28	0	3	14	45
Statistics	0	0	25	8	6	6	45
Electrical Engineering	0	0	30	0	5	4	39
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	0	0	0	3	15	21	39
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	13	0	15	10	38
Area Studies	0	0	37	0	0	0	37
Geography & Cartography	0	0	28	0	5	4	37
Sociology	0	0	34	0	1	2	37
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	0	36	0	36
Geological & Earth Sciences	0	0	23	0	7	6	36
Real Estate	0	0	35	0	0	0	35
Anthropology	0	0	28	0	1	4	33
International Relations & National Security	0	0	31	0	1	0	32
Romance Languages	0	0	27	0	1	0	28
Management Information Systems	0	0	0	21	0	0	21
Philosophy	0	0	17	0	1	3	21
Entrepreneurial Studies	0	0	0	0	19	0	19
Computer Science	0	0	0	0	19	0	19
Medical Illustration & Informatics	0	0	0	0	19	0	19
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	0	0	6	13	19
Drama & Theater Arts	0	0	14	0	5	0	19
Special Education	0	0	0	0	12	6	18
Ethnic Studies	0	0	7	9	0	0	16
Mental & Social Health Services	0	0	0	16	0	0	16
Dance	0	0	16	0	0	0	16
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	0	0	0	15	0	15
Slavic, Baltic & Albanian Languages	0	0	14	0	0	0	14
Applied Mathematics	0	0	0	0	12	0	12
Information Science	0	0	11	0	0	0	11
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	0	0	11	0	11
Writing Studies	0	0	0	0	9	0	9
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	0	0	0	2	4	3	9
Religious Studies	0	0	9	0	0	0	9
Public Administration	0	0	0	0	9	0	9
Genetics	0	0	0	0	8	0	8
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	0	0	0	0	8	0	8
Germanic Languages	0	0	6	0	1	0	7
Educational Assessment	0	0	0	2	2	2	6
Nuclear Engineering	0	0	0	0	5	1	6
Information Technology	0	0	0	4	1	0	5
Criminology	0	0	0	0	0	5	5
Other Physical Science	0	0	0	0	4	0	4
Instructional Media Design	0	0	0	0	3	0	3
Museum Studies	0	0	0	3	0	0	3
Other Social Sciences	0	0	0	0	3	0	3
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	0	0	0	0	1	1	2
Physics	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
Education Philosophy	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Classical Languages & Literature	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
General Business/Commerce	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Systems Engineering	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gerontology	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Archeology	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	13	4	6,940	324	1,604	930	9,815

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 Idibri under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.