Private colleges, unlike large public institutions, can be a great option for students wanting a more intimate campus experience, more personal attention from excellent professors, and more immediate access to support services. Here is our list of the best private colleges in South Carolina.
The 31 public schools range in tuition from $5,000 to $17,000. The largest institution, the University of South Carolina (U of SC), is right in the middle, totaling $11,000 for fees. Located in Columbia, U of SC has over 30,000 students in attendance and offers over 300 degree options. Aside from the technical and community colleges in the state, there are four universities under $10,000. At $17,000, the Medical University of South Carolina is the most expensive public school in the state.
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In addition, over 25 private schools, 17 with religious affiliations, offer academic settings with small student populations, none exceeding 3,500. Though it is the most expensive at $50,000, Furman University boasts an 84% graduation rate. With Methodist connections, Wofford College charges a tuition of $44,000, and it bears noting that the campus is situated on a national arboretum. The University of South Carolina School of Law is one of the nation’s oldest law schools and the state’s only nonprofit law school. Graduates of the school have the opportunity to receive financial assistance from the Public Interest Law Loan Forgiveness Fund if they are employed in the field of public interest law.
Along the 60-mile stretch of beaches in South Carolina is iconic Myrtle Beach, home to one of the world’s tallest Ferris wheels. Cypress swamps, military museums, and tea gardens add to the southern charm of this state. And with over 50 higher education institutions, students have plenty of options for where to earn their associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree.
Check out the top programs available, and earn your degree in The Palmetto State.
Public and private colleges and universities operate under different business models. Public colleges and universities are owned by the state and receive both state and federal funding to operate. Private colleges and universities are private companies with private funding. If you’re looking at the pros and cons of private vs. public colleges, consider that many public colleges provide diverse course offerings, influential professors, and an excellent return on your investment.
Public colleges are schools that receive most of their funding from tax revenues. As a result, the cost of a bachelor’s degree at a public university is often lower than the equivalent cost at a private college — especially for students attending a public school in their home state. Attending a college in-state is usually the cheapest option. Private universities and colleges can be very competitive with their funding opportunities, so do not simply believe that private colleges are always going to be more expensive. According to National Center for Educational Statistics, the average annual cost (tuition, fees, room and board for full-time students) at a public university was slightly over $20,000. In contrast, private universities cost, on average, nearly $43,000 annually. But in the end, the cost of college comes down to each student’s academic and financial situation.
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence in their fields of study.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.
This list is composed entirely of private colleges and universities that offer bachelor’s degrees. We’ve identified 21 private universities in South Carolina. To be included in the list below of the best private universities in South Carolina, schools must be fully accredited, private, non-profit institution, and must offer a broad range of bachelor’s degrees.
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
81%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1330/30
Furman University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
53%
Graduation
80%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1270/28
Wofford College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$21K
Graduation
65%
Student body
3K
Bob Jones University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
59%
Graduation
57%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1035/23
Anderson University ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
52%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1025/19
Erskine College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
19%
Student body
<1K
Allen University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
28%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
925/17
Benedict College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$41K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
64%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1115/22
Presbyterian College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$20K
Acceptance
82%
Graduation
52%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1115/19
Converse University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$28K
Acceptance
57%
Graduation
52%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
985/18
Newberry College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$22K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
51%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1055/23
North Greenville University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
50%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
940/17
Claflin University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
54%
Graduation
44%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1110/25
Charleston Southern University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$26K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
54%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/20
Southern Wesleyan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Graduation
26%
Student body
<1K
Morris College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$26K
Acceptance
51%
Graduation
68%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1035/21
Columbia International University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$26K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
33%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1065/21
Limestone University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Graduation
41%
Student body
<1K
Voorhees College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Graduation
8%
Student body
<1K
Clinton College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$21K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
66%
Student body
1K
Columbia College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$32K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
53%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1065/23
Coker University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utiulized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.
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