Allen University

Allen University is an academic community which provides students an opportunity to obtain a baccalaureate degree in liberal arts and professional programs. The University has a strong unalterable commitment to teaching in delivery of its baccalaureate programs.

Allen University is a Christian Liberal Arts institution whose purpose is to prepare leaders who are skilled in communication, critical thinking, and who demonstrate high moral character. Our aim is to provide an environment of academic excellence in order to heighten our students’ chances of succeeding in a culturally diverse and economically global world. Allen University desires to follow a Total Life Curriculum model, which addresses preparation of the whole person for life service.

We seek to develop the intellect, the spirit and the body as we bring our students into a climate designed for success.Successful development of each student is our goal. Allen believes that faith plays a major role in developing one’s character. Therefore, our curriculum includes principles and practices of the historical beliefs of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Begin the next chapter of your life by becoming a Yellow Jacket. Once you join the Allen University family, you find yourself surrounded by other outstanding students, a caring and active alumni network, and an educated and dedicated faculty. We love our students and we care about their education and success.

We have over 40 full-time faculty and 60% of those have achieved the highest degree in their respective fields. Our faculty have been educated at institutions such as Howard University, Purdue University, University of Massachusetts, Clemson University, University of South Carolina, and more. Students at Allen benefit from educated faculty who care about them as individuals.

Grants and scholarships are considered free money and do not have to be repaid by the recipient. These funds can be awarded by the federal government, state government, private sponsors, or Allen University. Federal Pell Grant is awarded to undergraduate students who are enrolled in an eligible program, have not received a bachelor’s degree, and who demonstrate financial need. The amount of the grant is determined by the Federal Pell Grant Program based on the applicant’s family’s financial circumstances. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant is awarded by the Director of Student Financial Aid to students demonstrating financial need. Students showing exceptional need will be given first consideration for these grants as long as funds are available.

South Carolina Tuition Grant is awarded to academically eligible South Carolina residents attending Allen University on a full-time basis during the regular academic year. The amount of the South Carolina Tuition Grant is determined by the South Carolina Tuition Grant Commission based on the applicant’s family’s financial circumstances. Students who fail to enroll full time during the Fall semester forfeit their eligibility for the entire award year. Eligible students must be enrolled in 12 hours each semester. SC Tuition Grant does not give funding for classes taken in June or July. Students receiving 100% of tuition paid by another entity are not eligible for the SC Tuition Grant. To be eligible to receive SC Tuition Grant funds, students must complete their FAFSA by June 30th and a certification statement each year before November 15th. South Carolina Tuition Grant funds in the spring semester will be split into two disbursements per the new South Carolina Tuition Grant Regulation. The SC Hope Scholarship is a one-year merit-based scholarship created for eligible first-time entering freshmen attending a four-year institution. Eligible full-time students may receive up to $2,800.

The Allen University story begins seven years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and five years after the end of the American Civil War. The end of that conflict saw significant expansion of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the former Confederate States. Allen University grew out of the church’s desire to educate newly freed slaves and to ensure a well-trained clergy for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Right Revered John Mifflin Brown and the assembled clergy of the Columbia District of the AME Church, on July 29, 1870, agreed to raise funds to purchase a 150-acre farm in Cokesbury, South Carolina. They did so in hopes of locating a school there that would be the “FIRST INSTITUTION OF LEARNING CONSECRATED TO NEGRO SELF ACTIVITY AND NEGRO MANHOOD,” in the state of South Carolina.

Allen University’s initial mission included the education of students at all levels and ages. The University offered not only degrees in law, theology, and arts, but included elementary and high school courses of study. One could at that time enter Allen University as a child in the first grade and leave prepared to teach, preach, or plead in the courts. The grammar school was discontinued in the mid-twenties, and the high school was closed after the graduation of the class of 1933. The University only accepted those who had completed high school for the 1929-33 school term.Allen University celebrated its centennial year in 1970, thus closing a century of fulfilling its educational mission. The institution, founded in 1870 by former slaves, still provides undergraduate education with an unalterable commitment to teaching, research and community service, undergirded by the faith expressed in the motto of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: “God our Father, Christ our Redeemer, Man our brother.”

Allen University celebrates each year with a renewed commitment to prepare its students to meet the challenges of this century. That commitment is reflected in the University’s attainment and maintenance of accreditation to award the baccalaureate degree by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and its accepted membership in the UNCF (United Negro College Fund). The University remains faithful to the dreams of its founders and to its historic mission and purpose as expressed in its motto, “We teach the mind to think, the hands to work, and the heart to love.”