Contents
South Carolina has 41 four-year degree-granting institutions active in the federal directory — 14 public, 24 private nonprofit, and 3 private for-profit.
The list below is every active, degree-granting institution IPEDS classifies at the four-year level. It is a directory, not a ranking. Two-year colleges, certificate-only schools, and institutions that have closed or stopped reporting are not here.
Four-year institutions
| Institution | City | Control | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allen University | Columbia | Private nonprofit | HBCU |
| American College of the Building Arts | Charleston | Private nonprofit | |
| Anderson University | Anderson | Private nonprofit | |
| Benedict College | Columbia | Private nonprofit | HBCU |
| Bob Jones University | Greenville | Private nonprofit | |
| Charleston School of Law | Charleston | Private for-profit | |
| Charleston Southern University | Charleston | Private nonprofit | |
| Citadel Military College of South Carolina | Charleston | Public | |
| Claflin University | Orangeburg | Private nonprofit | HBCU |
| Clemson University | Clemson | Public | Land-grant |
| Clinton College | Rock Hill | Private nonprofit | HBCU |
| Coastal Carolina University | Conway | Public | |
| Coker University | Hartsville | Private nonprofit | |
| College of Charleston | Charleston | Public | |
| Columbia College | Columbia | Private nonprofit | |
| Columbia International University | Columbia | Private nonprofit | |
| Converse University | Spartanburg | Private nonprofit | |
| Erskine College | Due West | Private nonprofit | |
| Francis Marion University | Florence | Public | |
| Furman University | Greenville | Private nonprofit | |
| Greenville Technical College | Greenville | Public | |
| Lander University | Greenwood | Public | |
| Limestone University | Gaffney | Private nonprofit | |
| Medical University of South Carolina | Charleston | Public | Medical school |
| Morris College | Sumter | Private nonprofit | HBCU |
| Newberry College | Newberry | Private nonprofit | |
| North Greenville University | Tigerville | Private nonprofit | |
| Presbyterian College | Clinton | Private nonprofit | |
| Sherman College of Chiropractic | Boiling Springs | Private nonprofit | |
| South Carolina State University | Orangeburg | Public | HBCU; Land-grant |
| South University-Columbia | Columbia | Private for-profit | |
| Southern Wesleyan University | Central | Private nonprofit | |
| Spartanburg Methodist College | Spartanburg | Private nonprofit | |
| Strayer University-South Carolina | Greenville | Private for-profit | |
| University of South Carolina Aiken | Aiken | Public | |
| University of South Carolina Beaufort | Bluffton | Public | |
| University of South Carolina-Columbia | Columbia | Public | Medical school |
| University of South Carolina-Upstate | Spartanburg | Public | |
| Voorhees University | Denmark | Private nonprofit | HBCU |
| Winthrop University | Rock Hill | Public | |
| Wofford College | Spartanburg | Private nonprofit |
Public university systems
System membership as recorded in the IPEDS directory. Counts are of four-year public members in this table only, so a system that also runs two-year campuses will show more members in its own materials.
| System | Four-year public members here |
|---|---|
| South Carolina Commission of Higher Education | 1 |
| South Carolina Technical College System | 1 |
| University of South Carolina | 4 |
Sources
- NCES IPEDS, Institutional Characteristics directory (HD2024) — the federal directory of postsecondary institutions participating in Title IV programs. Every institution, city, control, and system value above is read directly from that file. Retrieved 2026-08-11 from nces.ed.gov/ipeds.
- Filters applied: currently active (
CYACTIVE), degree-granting (DEGGRANT), and institutional level (ICLEVEL). Flags in the Notes column are the IPEDSHBCU,TRIBAL,LANDGRNT, andMEDICALfields.
Institution names are IPEDS legal names and sometimes differ from the name a school markets under. Check the institution's own site before relying on any detail here.
Back to Colleges by state.