University of South Carolina

The primary mission of the University of South Carolina Columbia is the education of the state’s citizens through teaching, research, creative activity, and community engagement.

Among America’s oldest and most comprehensive public universities, USC Columbia is the major research institution of the University of South Carolina system and its largest campus, enrolling approximately 21,000 undergraduate students and approximately 8,000 students in graduate and professional programs. At the heart of its mission lies the University’s responsibility to state and society to promote the dissemination of knowledge, cultural enrichment, and an enhanced quality of life.

The University serves a diverse population of students with widely varying backgrounds, career goals, and levels of aspiration. USC Columbia offers over 320 degrees at the bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional program levels, affording students the most comprehensive array of educational programs in the state. Additional opportunities for personal and career development, including an associate degree program at Fort Jackson, are provided to the citizens of South Carolina through outreach and continuing education activities.

Through the primary method of classroom and laboratory instruction, and through a secondary method of distance learning delivered via the Internet, teleconference, and electronic media, degree programs are offered in the following areas: arts and sciences; education; engineering and computing; hospitality, retail, and sport management; mass communications and information studies; music; public health; and social work; and in professional programs such as business, law, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. The depth and breadth of its graduate programs in the arts and sciences, international business, public health, social work, and library and information science distinguishes USC Columbia from all other institutions of higher learning in South Carolina.

Recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as a top research and service institution, nationally ranked in start-up businesses, and conferring over 30% of all bachelor’s and graduate degrees awarded at public institutions in South Carolina, the University has a profound relevance, reach, and impact on the people of the state. As the flagship institution of the state system, USC Columbia leads the way in providing all students with the highest-quality education, including the knowledge, skills, and values necessary for success and responsible citizenship in a complex and changing world through engagement in nationally and internationally ranked research, scholarship, community outreach, and artistic creation.

Our award-winning faculty members are leading the way in many fields, from polymers and aerospace engineering to public health and wellness to history and music. In the past five years, university faculty have filed 354 invention disclosures, filed 198 patent applications and licensed 58 technologies.

We offer you a firm grounding in general education courses before you venture off into the essentials of your chosen major. This gives you time to find your passion and build the degree you want while learning how to apply classwork to the real world and adding internships and travel abroad to your resume.

We offer nearly 200 master’s and Ph.D. programs that help you contribute to the world of knowledge in your field. Combine your M.B.A. and law degrees or dozens of other programs that let you complete advanced degrees in two disciplines at the same time.

We educate and train many of our state’s doctors, lawyers and pharmacists. Our law school graduates have gone on to become judges, governors and U.S. senators and representatives. Our medical school has opened a second campus in Greenville, and our pharmacy graduates are learning about the business, as well as the chemistry, of their profession.

Palmetto College offers degree completion programs for former students whose college careers were interrupted by life events. Many of our graduate-level courses also are available online for busy professionals.Our commitment to educate the residents of South Carolina can be seen through programs that help you get ahead at work or simply learn something new.You can consider your academic bulletin as your guidepost throughout your college career. The bulletins are our official documents of record concerning academic programs and regulations at the university.

Our five-year calendar can help you with planning and deadlines. We offer courses year-round, so you can take advantage of internships and study abroad semesters while staying on track to graduate on your time.

The Palmetto State established South Carolina College — the precursor to the University of South Carolina — on Dec. 19, 1801, as part of an effort to unite South Carolinians in the wake of the American Revolution. South Carolina's leaders saw the new college as a way to promote "the good order and harmony" of the state.

The founding of South Carolina College was also a part of the Southern public college movement spurred by Thomas Jefferson. Within 20 years of one another, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia established state-supported colleges.

In the antebellum era, the Palmetto State generously supported South Carolina College. The institution featured a cosmopolitan faculty, including such noted European scholars as Francis Lieber and Thomas Cooper, as well as renowned American scholars John and Joseph LeConte. Offering a traditional classical curriculum, South Carolina College became one of the most influential colleges in the South before 1861, earning a reputation as the training ground for South Carolina's antebellum elite.