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Trends by state

Trends by state

South Carolina

36 colleges on the site: 13 public, 21 private nonprofit, 2 for-profit. Their undergraduates grew 8% in total since fall 2014, to 127,264 today (33 of 36 South Carolina colleges in the panel).

Explore South Carolina's colleges

How South Carolina's colleges changed

The median South Carolina college, fall 2014 to fall 2024, against the national median (dashed) over the same .

Undergraduates

-2%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Applicants

+69%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Acceptance rate

+13.7 pts

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Average total cost

-8%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Public and private

State stories are often public-system stories: a state's publics shrinking while its privates hold, or the reverse.

Public

12 colleges
Undergrads
+6%
Applicants
+60%
Acceptance rate
+9.9 pts
Average cost
-16%

Private nonprofit

19 colleges
Undergrads
-6%
Applicants
+76%
Acceptance rate
+14.8 pts
Average cost
-7%

Where South Carolina's first-years come from

Top sending states

  1. South Carolina (in-state)60%
  2. NC5%
  3. GA4%
  4. NY4%
  5. NJ4%
  6. PA3%
  7. VA3%
  8. MD2%

Public:

22% → 25% (13 colleges)

Private nonprofit:

24% → 34% (21 colleges)

First-years crossing state lines, fall 2024

Inflow
11,882
Outflow
4,611
Net
+7,271

South Carolina's colleges enroll 2.6 first-years from other states for every South Carolina resident who starts college in another state, among four-year colleges on this site.

Colleges taking the most of the inflow

  1. University of South Carolina-Columbia27%
  2. Clemson University18%
  3. Coastal Carolina University15%
  4. College of Charleston11%
  5. Furman University3%

One fall, over campus-based colleges only: not that fall, not for-profit, and not a campus that merged or split.

Biggest movers in South Carolina

The same as the national lists, restricted to South Carolina's colleges.

Applications surged

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: +60.7% (16 colleges ranked)

  1. 1South Carolina State University+278.5%2,911 → 11,017
  2. 2Clemson University+196.4%20,756 → 61,517
  3. 3College of Charleston+183.4%11,179 → 31,680
  4. 4Furman University+135.9%4,583 → 10,813
  5. 5University of South Carolina-Columbia+125.8%23,342 → 52,703
  6. 6Anderson University+112.3%2,142 → 4,548
  7. 7Wofford College+74.5%2,556 → 4,459
  8. 8Winthrop University+66.1%4,546 → 7,552
  9. 9Claflin University+55.2%5,237 → 8,127
  10. 10Lander University+54.1%2,963 → 4,565

Sources:IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (distance education), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Grew the most

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: −1.9% (25 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Newberry College+37.5%1,076 → 1,479
  2. 2Clemson University+36.4%17,083 → 23,300
  3. 3Anderson University+27.3%2,500 → 3,183
  4. 4Lander University+27.2%2,670 → 3,397
  5. 5University of South Carolina-Columbia+21.1%24,623 → 29,820
  6. 6Columbia College+20.2%1,117 → 1,343
  7. 7University of South Carolina Beaufort+14.6%1,790 → 2,052
  8. 8Coastal Carolina University+14.6%9,058 → 10,377
  9. 9Wofford College+9.8%1,654 → 1,816
  10. 10South Carolina State University+6.6%2,753 → 2,934

Sources:College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (distance education), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Students pay much less

(in 2023–24 dollars), 2013–14 to 2023–24

Median college: −14.2% (23 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Claflin University−37.4%$27,674 → $17,335
  2. 2University of South Carolina Aiken−28.1%$21,860 → $15,724
  3. 3University of South Carolina-Upstate−24.5%$22,039 → $16,632
  4. 4Winthrop University−24.5%$23,218 → $17,538
  5. 5University of South Carolina Beaufort−23.2%$24,175 → $18,576
  6. 6South Carolina State University−20.3%$25,853 → $20,608
  7. 7Furman University−18.3%$42,143 → $34,438
  8. 8Francis Marion University−17.4%$17,728 → $14,647
  9. 9Benedict College−16.9%$23,207 → $19,287
  10. 10Newberry College−14.6%$26,927 → $22,991

Sources:IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, 2013–14 to 2023–24;IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, 2013–14 to 2023–24;College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2013 to Fall 2024;inflation: BLS CPI-U, school-year averagesAbout the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Public research universities

South Carolina's public R1 and R2 universities (Carnegie 2025), with their undergraduate change over the same window. No classification in the data means "flagship," so this is simply the state's public research universities.

How this was measured

  • Which colleges. Colleges with 300 or more undergraduates in both fall 2014 and fall 2024: 33 of 36 South Carolina colleges. It's a , so colleges entering or leaving the data don't look like change.
  • Average total cost is an academic-year figure, one year behind fall: 2013–14 to 2023–24, after inflation.
  • Out-of-state shares are collected in even-numbered falls only; odd years are gaps, not zeros.
  • Totals and medians both appear because they can diverge: a state's total can fall more (or less) than its median college when its biggest colleges move differently.
  • No policy attribution. This page shows what changed, not why; a state's mix of public, private, and for-profit colleges, and its system policies, aren't broken out as causes.
  • First-years crossing state lines is a single snapshot, fall 2024, over campus-based colleges only: colleges that fall, for-profit colleges, and campuses that merged or split are left out. It's the newest fall the site's per-college home-state tables cover, not this page's ten-year window.

Sources:College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, 2014–15 to 2023–24;IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, 2014–15 to 2023–24;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (part C, residence of first-time students), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;inflation: BLS CPI-U, school-year averagesAbout the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)