South Carolina has five private two-year colleges that offer associate degrees, diplomas, certificates and the opportunity to transfer credits to four-year institutions. The two-year colleges include Clinton Junior College and Friendship Junior College in Rock Hill, Forrest Junior College in Anderson, Virginia College in Greenville and Spartanburg Methodist College, which distinguishes itself as the only independent, residential two-year institution in South Carolina. Spartanburg Methodist focuses solely on the freshmen and sophomore years of a student's education and offers associate degrees in arts, criminal justice, religious studies, science and a certificate in paralegal studies. With a controlled enrollment of about 800 students, Spartanburg Methodist provides small class sizes and intense one-on-one instruction.
Converse College in Spartanburg and Columbia College, are accredited private women's colleges in South Carolina. Converse College was founded in 1890, and for more than 100 years has developed a reputation as one of the best private women's colleges in the South. Converse offers bachelor's and master's degrees in more than 30 programs, including accounting, economics and philosophy. Columbia College, located in the city of Columbia, is a four-year, private liberal arts school for women that is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The school enrolls 1,500 students and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Columbia College offers more than 40 majors, in addition to a pre-med program, and confers undergraduate degrees in arts, science, fine arts and music, and master's degrees in arts and education.
South Carolina also offers private technical colleges, including Fortis College in Columbia; ECPI College of Technology with campuses in Columbia, Greenville and Charleston; Centura College in Charleston and Columbia; Miller-Motte Technical College in Charleston and Remington College in Columbia. ECPI College of Technology offers associate degrees or diplomas in programs that include accounting, biomedical technology, medical imaging technology and network security. ECPI also offers bachelor of science degrees in programs such as nursing, information technology management and database programming.
South Carolina has a number of private colleges affiliated with Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran and other Christian churches. These colleges include Anderson University, Presbyterian College in Clinton, Wofford College in Spartanburg, Southern Wesleyan University in Central, Voorhees College in Denmark and Bob Jones University in Greenville, the largest fundamentalist Christian school in the world. With the goal of graduating Christian students committed to living and working by spiritual values, Bob Jones University, founded in 1927 by evangelist Bob Jones Sr., has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students from all 50 states and 40 foreign nations. There are six separate schools within the university, including the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Religion, Seminary and Graduate School of Religion, School of Fine Arts and Communication, School of Education and School of Business. Bob Jones University offers bachelor's and master's degrees in such programs as church music, Bible studies, journalism, finance and culinary arts.