College ranking

Top colleges in South Carolina by 10-year ROI

College Scorecard + IPEDS Last updated: May 2026

Executive Summary

Bachelor’s-predominant institutions located in South Carolina with at least 200 students, sorted by the same 10-year ROI estimate used nationally. Citadel Military College of South Carolina leads this list at $261,475 (10 Yr. ROI).

Leaders: top 3

Citadel Military College of South Carolina

10 Yr. ROI $261,475

SC · Public

Clemson University

10 Yr. ROI $252,250

SC · Public

Wofford College

10 Yr. ROI $223,640

SC · Private nonprofit

Top 25 Top colleges in South Carolina by 10-year ROI

Rank	Institution	State	Control	Enrollment	10 Yr. ROI	Also see
1	Citadel Military College of South Carolina	SC	Public	2,705	$261,475	Grad 79.0% · Net $22,019
2	Clemson University	SC	Public	23,300	$252,250	Grad 87.5% · Net $22,032
3	Wofford College	SC	Private nonprofit	1,816	$223,640	Grad 80.3% · Net $23,144
4	University of South Carolina-Columbia	SC	Public	29,820	$207,639	Grad 78.7% · Net $22,197
5	College of Charleston	SC	Public	10,558	$188,468	Grad 65.3% · Net $18,177
6	University of South Carolina-Upstate	SC	Public	4,038	$178,562	Grad 43.2% · Net $15,680
7	Presbyterian College	SC	Private nonprofit	852	$177,160	Grad 52.0% · Net $20,154
8	Coastal Carolina University	SC	Public	10,377	$171,449	Grad 54.2% · Net $15,287
9	University of South Carolina Aiken	SC	Public	2,962	$170,954	Grad 43.6% · Net $14,565
10	Furman University	SC	Private nonprofit	2,379	$168,108	Grad 73.9% · Net $31,764
11	Francis Marion University	SC	Public	2,628	$164,133	Grad 37.9% · Net $10,890
12	Bob Jones University	SC	Private nonprofit	2,005	$161,476	Grad 71.3% · Net $14,632
13	Southern Wesleyan University	SC	Private nonprofit	747	$155,300	Grad 51.5% · Net $16,041
14	Winthrop University	SC	Public	3,523	$150,767	Grad 51.6% · Net $16,375
15	Erskine College	SC	Private nonprofit	766	$142,402	Grad 34.1% · Net $19,826
16	Charleston Southern University	SC	Private nonprofit	2,893	$142,198	Grad 49.8% · Net $20,661
17	University of South Carolina Beaufort	SC	Public	2,052	$137,970	Grad 38.7% · Net $20,646
18	Lander University	SC	Public	3,397	$137,008	Grad 50.2% · Net $16,659
19	Columbia College	SC	Private nonprofit	1,343	$136,788	Grad 41.0% · Net $21,611
20	Newberry College	SC	Private nonprofit	1,479	$125,110	Grad 41.5% · Net $22,104
21	Anderson University	SC	Private nonprofit	3,183	$124,988	Grad 71.7% · Net $24,068
22	Columbia International University	SC	Private nonprofit	716	$114,060	Grad 50.3% · Net $18,951
23	North Greenville University	SC	Private nonprofit	1,819	$111,986	Grad 53.5% · Net $22,235
24	Strayer University-South Carolina	SC	Private for-profit	1,868	$103,396	Grad 33.3% · Net $22,593
25	South Carolina State University	SC	Public	2,934	$99,470	Grad 31.6% · Net $18,030

Method notes

Underlying institution file: EDsmart Data processed College Scorecard extract merged to the IPEDS 2024 directory for HBCU and Carnegie fields.
Cohort applied on this page: enrollment floor of 200 undergraduates; sorted highest first on 10 Yr. ROI; 33 campuses met every filter and the top 25 are published.
Ties on the ranked metric are broken by enrollment, then institution name, so ranks stay stable between rebuilds.
ROI column matches the processed college_roi_rankings series in this site build; see College Scorecard ROI methodology.
How the 10-year ROI figure is built: median earnings reported 6, 8, and 10 years after entry (years 7 and 9 linearly interpolated) are summed across years 6–10, then average annual net price × typical years enrolled (five for bachelor’s-predominant campuses) is subtracted. It is a nominal-dollar gap—not discounted to present value, and it does not subtract earnings foregone while enrolled or compare against a no-college baseline. Campuses reporting only one of the three earnings years are excluded from these tables.
School profile links use generated slugs; not every campus has a published profile page yet—use the Scorecard site as fallback.

Download

Download CSV Download JSON