Division of Development and Alumni Relations

Support the Promise
of Carolina's Campuses

With 44,152 students on eight campuses, more than 350 degree programs—including law, business, engineering, public health, and medicine—and more than 307,000 alumni, the University of South Carolina transforms lives in South Carolina and around the world. The University's Columbia campus, three senior campuses, and four regional campuses create a statewide presence that opens great opportunity for students and communities.

While our four-year campuses in Columbia, Aiken, Upstate and Beaufort deliver world-class education quality and important access to brighter futures, we are especially proud of the work our two-year regional campuses in Salkehatchie, Union, Lancaster and Sumter conduct to put a higher education within reach of more Carolinians. 

As South Carolinians strive to improve the quality of their lives, many residents across our state find themselves able to earn a college degree only through the convenient access of our regional campuses near their hometowns.  The 4,619 students currently enrolled at USC Regional Campuses rely on the campus' proximity to earn their associate or bachelor degree.

All of our campuses serve their communities through their libraries, performing and cultural arts venues, small business development services, and special programs that meet a community's particular needs.

For example, USC Salkehatchie and USC Lancaster graduated their first classes of nurses in May 2010. Part of a rural nursing partnership program funded by private and public support, the majority of those students are now working in the rural communities served by these campuses. The program enables place-bound students to live at home while obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

Another example is USC Union's Opportunity Scholars Program, which provides support for students who are the first in their families to attend college and who qualify for significant amounts of financial aid.  The campuses are hubs for hundreds of area K-12 teachers who enroll each year in programs to complete their re-certification requirements. 

We're also proud that active military and veterans comprise 15 percent of our Sumter campus' student population.

The University's statewide impact is far reaching.  Consider that:

• USC awards nearly 40 percent of all bachelor’s and graduate degrees conferred at public institutions in our state. USC’s goal is to educate even more South Carolinians and increase the number of SC residents with a college degree, thus increasing income and quality of life.

• The USC Columbia community contributed more than $7 million to the local economy in volunteer time and money last year.

• Our University system has an economic impact of $3.96 billion on the state and supports more than 46,000 jobs, or 2.5 percent of the state's job base.

• Nearly three-fourths of all graduates from USC's School of Medicine who currently practice medicine in the Palmetto State are in primary care or needed specialties—many of them in non-metropolitan and underserved areas.

• Nearly 5,500 K–12 teachers in South Carolina classrooms earned their degrees at Carolina.