As in many states, the private colleges and universities in South Carolina are typically the most expensive, though many offer excellent financial aid, which helps lower their cost. Columbia College, a school for women, charges $23,610 a year in tuition as of 2011, though students with a 1160 or higher SAT score automatically receive a scholarship worth $14,000 a year. Newbury College, another private institute, costs $21,500 a year in tuition and also charges $1,475 for laptops, which are distributed to freshman. Like Columbia, Newbury also offers financial aid to those who qualify, which can add up to thousands in savings.
Residents of South Carolina will most likely get the best deals on tuition by attending public universities and paying the in-state tuition rates, funded by their tax dollars. For instance, South Carolina State University charges residents $4,449 a year as of 2011 for undergraduate- and graduate-level education. The flagship campus of the University of South Carolina at Columbia charges $4,693 a year for undergrad and $5,245 a year for graduate studies, offering significantly lower tuition rates than private schools.
Students who are not legal residents of South Carolina and attend school in the state will be faced with significantly higher tuition rates when enrolling in public universities and colleges, though they are still lower than private schools. For instance, South Carolina State University charges out-of-state students nearly double the rate of residents, as of 2011, for a total of $8,450 a year for undergraduate and graduate learning. Nonresident students at the University of South Carolina at Columbia pay $12,481 a year, almost $8,000 more than state residents.
South Carolina is home to many 2-year technical and community colleges that offer reasonable tuition rates for students seeking career-intensive courses of study. Greenville Technical College, which offers courses in subjects like health and business, as of 2011 charges county residents $1,808, noncounty South Carolina residents $1,956 and out-of-state students $3,686 per semester. Spartanburg Community College has a similar tuition scheme, with Spartanburg and Cherokee county residents paying $1,768, Union county residents $2,027, noncounty South Carolina students $2,192 and all others $3,649 per semester.