University of South Carolina Acceptance Rate and How to get in Easily

The University of South Carolina (USC) is a public research university founded in 1801 and located in Columbia, South Carolina. Throughout the state, it has seven satellite campuses. Its main campus covers over 359 acres (145 ha) in downtown Columbia which is close to the South Carolina State House. Keep reading to know the University of South Carolina acceptance rate

USC is classified as part of “R1: Doctoral Universities with Highest Research Activity”. The university also houses the largest collection of Scottish literature materials and Robert Burns outside Scotland, as well as the world’s largest Ernest Hemingway collection. 

The University of South Carolina is the flagship institution of the University of South Carolina System. More than 350 programs of study are offered. Each leads to bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from 14 different degree-granting colleges and schools. There’s a total enrollment of approximately 52,000 students. As of fall 2019, 35,000 were on the main Columbia campus, making it the largest university in South Carolina. There are also several thousand future students in USC’s feeder programs at nearby technical colleges. Business, engineering, law, medicine, pharmacy, and social work are some of the professional schools on the Columbia campus.

University of South Carolina setting is urban and the campus size is 444 acres. The school uses a semester-based academic calendar. No matter what year you decide to attend as an admitted student, the makes your transition to college life very easy.  in 2020, there was a total undergraduate enrollment of 27,270 students across all departments.

Freshmen first take the University 101 program, a first-year program designed by the school to help students adjust to academics and life on campus. If you are transferring in from technical schools, the University of South Carolina offers an academic support system called the Bridge Program. The school sports teams, the Gamecocks, participate in the NCAA Division I Southeastern Conference. Columbia, which is home to the University of South Carolina’s college town, boasts a variety of outdoor options, entertainment, and nightlife for students to enjoy after school hours. Other college towns like Charlotte, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina, are two hours away.

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About the University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina (USC) is a public research university founded in 1801 and located in Columbia, South Carolina. Throughout the state, it has seven satellite campuses. Its main campus covers over 359 acres (145 ha) in downtown Columbia which is close to the South Carolina State House.

USC is classified as part of “R1: Doctoral Universities with Highest Research Activity”. The university also houses the largest collection of Scottish literature materials and Robert Burns outside Scotland, as well as the world’s largest Ernest Hemingway collection

The University of South Carolina is the flagship institution of the University of South Carolina System. More than 350 programs of study are offered. Each leads to bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from 14 different degree-granting colleges and schools. There’s a total enrollment of approximately 52,000 students. As of fall 2019, 35,000 were on the main Columbia campus, making it the largest university in South Carolina. There are also several thousand future students in USC’s feeder programs at nearby technical colleges. Business, engineering, law, medicine, pharmacy, and social work are some of the professional schools on the Columbia campus

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University of South Carolina History

The University of South Carolina was founded as South Carolina College on December 19, 1801. It was established through an act of the South Carolina General Assembly initiated by Governor John Drayton to promote harmony between the Lowcountry and the Backcountry. With an initial enrollment of nine students, the college started classes with a traditional classical curriculum on January 10, 1805. 

USC’s first president was the theologian Reverend and Baptist minister, Jonathan Maxcy. He was a Brown University alumnus, with an honorary degree from Harvard University. Before coming to the college, Maxcy was formally the third president of Union College and the second president of Brown. Maxcy was USC’s president from 1804 through 1820.

The Rutledge College building was the only building on campus when South Carolina College opened its doors in 1805. It was located one block southeast of the State Capitol and served as an academic building, administrative office, residence hall, and chapel. However, the original campus master plan needed a total of eleven buildings that will all face a large lush gathering area. In 1807, the next building to be erected was the original President’s House. DeSaussure College is what the building is now known as. Over the next decades, the remaining buildings were constructed. All eleven buildings formed a U-shape open to Sumter Street after they were constructed. This modified quadrangle was named the Horseshoe.

Like other southern universities in the antebellum period, there were two very important organizations for students,  the two literary societies; the Clariosophic Society and the Euphradian Society. These two societies came about from a split in an earlier literary society known as the Philomathic. From the 1820s onward, it grew to surpass the majority of the student body.

In the antebellum period, the college became a symbol of the South because its graduates were about to secede from the Union. South Carolina College was able to acquire a reputation as the leading institution of the South with the generous support of the General Assembly. It also attracted several prestigious scholars, including Thomas Cooper, Francis Lieber, and Joseph LeConte.

one of the things that played a fundamental role in the foundation and construction of the University of South Carolina is the Construction and slave labor. The horseshoe or the primary buildings in the central heart of campus were built by slave labor and slave-made brick. Slave labor contributed to the maintenance operational duties of initial campus activities. This includes maintenance, cleaning of student-faculty duplexes and tenements, and the preparation of meals.

In January 1862, seventy-two students were present for classes and the college continued until a call by the Confederate government for South Carolina to fulfill its quota of 18,000 soldiers. In March, a system of conscription began for 20 men between the ages of 18 and 45. However, many students at the university still volunteered for service. Students started to deplete, and the professors temporarily closed the college and reopened it to those under 18 years old. On March 17, When the college reopened, only nine students attended classes. 

On June 25 with the approval of the state government, the college buildings were seized by the Confederate authorities and converted into a hospital. After various unsuccessful attempts to reopen the college, a resolution was passed by the trustees on December 2, 1863, which led to the official closure of the college. By February 1865, Sherman’s army reached the outskirts of Columbia and the college was not destroyed by the Union forces because it was being used as a hospital. In addition, on February 17 a company of the 25th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment was stationed at the campus to protect it from harm and to stop pillaging Yankee soldiers.

The University Act of 1869 reorganized the university and gave it financial support. J. Whipper, a black representative from Beaufort, added an amendment to the act. This amendment would prevent racial discrimination in the university admissions policy.  On March 9, 1869, the legislature also elected two black trustees, Benjamin A. Bozeman and Francis Lewis Cardozo, to prove its seriousness towards racial equality to the governing board of the university. Because the majority of the state’s black students were ill-prepared for the academic work required at a university, the legislature established a normal school and a preparatory school on the campus of the university. To encourage more enrollment by blacks, tuition and other fees were abolished. Henry E. Hayne, the Secretary of State of South Carolina, became the first black student on October 7, 1873, after he registered for the fall session in the medical college of the university.

The University of South Carolina Campus

The Horseshoe can be found on the National Register of Historic Places, and most of its buildings are a replica of the federal style of architecture in vogue in the country’s early days. It includes the first freestanding academic library in the United States, the South Caroliniana Library, designed by Robert Mills.

The 11 original buildings on the Horseshoe have survived a fire, an earthquake, and the Civil War over the years. In 1939, McKissick Museum replaced the original President’s House. After the extensive remodeling of one of its original buildings, the President’s House would eventually return to the Horseshoe which was dedicated in 1952.

The campus began to spread out dramatically from the Horseshoe during the 20th century. Today it has 24 residence halls, a student union, numerous academic buildings, Longstreet Theatre, the Koger Center for the Arts, the Carolina Coliseum, the Colonial Life Arena, Carolina Stadium, and various facilities for Olympic sports. (one mile off-campus, the Williams-Brice Stadium.) Other recent additions to the campus include the Greek Village, Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center, the Green Quad, the Honors College Residence Hall, the Public Health Research Center, the Graduate Columbia hotel, and the Colonial Life Arena and Carolina Stadium. There are also future plans to include a new home for the School of Law (that will be constructed in the block bounded by Gervais, Senate, Pendleton, and Bull streets with construction scheduled to begin in 2013). Additionally, a new home for the Moore School of Business is under construction at the corner of Assembly and Greene streets.

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How to get into the University of South Carolina Easily

Admission Requirements

You should consider a lot of things that shouldn’t be missed in your college application when it comes to the University of South Carolina requirements. The important requirement is:

• GPA requirements
• SAT and ACT requirements, and/or testing requirements
• Application requirements

Keep reading to know the admission requirements based on the University of South Carolina’s acceptance rate. 

University of South Carolina Acceptance rate

University of South Carolina acceptance rate is the first criteria you must consider before applying to USC. The acceptance rate tells you how competitive UC is and the requirements to be met.

The University of South Carolina acceptance rate is 68.6%. That means out of every 100 applicants, 69 students are admitted.

The school is moderately selective in its admission process. Yet, you must meet the requirements for GPA and SAT/ACT scores so as to stand a better chance of getting into USC if you exceed these requirements. Anything less than the minimum GPA and SAT/ACT scores will slim down your chance of getting an admission letter.

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University of South Carolina GPA Requirements

Despite the fact that there are minimum GPA requirements specified by many schools, GPA requirements are just the minimum scores you’re expected to submit along with your application so as not to get rejected immediately. 

The GPA requirement that really matters is the GPA you need to stand a real chance of getting in. Below is the University of South Carolina’s average GPA for its current students. 

GPA

If you get a GPA of 4, you are expected to be the best in your high school class. You’ll need nearly straight A’s in all your subjects. If you have a lower GPA, you can use courses like AP or IB classes which are quite hard to make up and help boost your weighted GPA and show you can take college classes.

However, your GPA will be hard to change in time for college applications if you’re currently a junior or senior. 4 GPA or below will require a higher SAT or ACT score to compensate. With such a GPA you will be able to compete against other applicants who have higher GPAs.

SAT and ACT Requirements

Different schools implement different requirements for standardizing tests. The majority of the schools require the SAT or ACT, while others also require SAT subject tests. 

Before you submit an application to the University of South Carolina, it’s either you take the SAT or ACT  test. You must perform well in the test to have a strong application.

The University of South Carolina SAT Requirements

Despite the fact that most schools don’t have an official cutoff SAT score, there is actually a hidden SAT requirement based on the school’s average score.

The average SAT score composite is 1275 on the 1600 SAT scale. Therefore, the University of South Carolina is competitive in SAT test scores.

University of South Carolina’s New SAT 25th percentile score is 1180, and the New SAT 75th percentile score is 1370. Getting an 1180 New SAT score puts you below average, while 1370 will put you above average.

Below is a breakdown of new SAT scores by section:

Section	Average	25th Percentile	75th Percentile
Math	635	580	690
Reading + Writing	640	600	680
Composite	1275	1180	1370

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The University of South Carolina Requirements

Just like for the SAT, based on University of South Carolina acceptance rate, there’s no known hard ACT cutoff mark. However, if your score is low, you won’t stand a chance of being admitted into the university.

University of South Carolina’s average ACT score is 28. This score makes it moderately competitive in terms of ACT scores.

The ACT score 25th percentile is 25, while the ACT score 75th percentile is 31.

The University of South Carolina has no minimum ACT requirement, but if your ACT score is 25 or below, you won’t stand a chance of getting into USC, unless your application is very unique.

Therefore, if your ACT score is currently less than 25, you should prepare for the ACT test and retake it. You will have a  higher chance of getting in if you are able to raise your score.

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Conclusion

The University of South Carolina Upstate is a diverse institution for students who want to be challenged academically. The school is urban and the campus size is 444 acres. The school uses a semester-based academic calendar. No matter what year you decide to attend as an admitted student, the makes your transition to college life very easy.  in 2020, there was a total undergraduate enrollment of 27,270 students across all departments.

University of South Carolina’s Acceptance Rate is 22.6%. Only 23 applications are considered out of 100 applications. To get into the University of South Carolina, you need a GPA of 4.39. UNC also expects you to have nearly straight A’s in all your classes as well as have to take hard classes like AP or IB courses

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