The University of South Carolina campus on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, in Columbia. (Mary Ann Chastain/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — As the college “enrollment cliff” arrives, applications to South Carolina’s four largest universities continue to rise, with heavy interest from students living outside the state.
The University of South Carolina, Clemson University, the College of Charleston and Coastal Carolina University all received a record number of applications from students seeking admission to the four public colleges this coming fall.
“That milestone bucks a national trend affecting many colleges and universities across the country facing enrollment shortfalls,” College of Charleston President Andrew Hsu told a House education panel last week.
Three-quarters of those students are from out of state.
The record applications come as universities across the country compete over a shrinking number of college-age students amid a falling national birth rate and rising costs for a college degree.
A decrease of 15%, or 650,000 fewer potential college students, is projected over the next 15 years, according to an analysis of Census data by the higher education consulting firm Ruffalo Noel Levitz.
The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education made a similar projection in December — a 13% decrease by 2041 — though it notes some Southern states, including South Carolina, are likely to fare far better.
Demographers predicted the so-called “cliff” would begin to strike college recruiting offices in the fall of this year. High school seniors scheduled to graduate this spring mark the beginning of a decline in the number of 18-year-olds preparing to enter college.
“We are in a period of turmoil in higher education across the country, but USC during this period is thriving,” President Michael Amiridis told the same House panel last month.
The state’s research universities and coastal schools continue to see a boost from out-of-state students, particularly from Northern states.
“The students and the parents, they vote with their SUVs,” Amiridis said, referring to the out-of-state plates on the back of vehicles on move-in day each year.
“You see them coming and that’s the best vote of confidence,” Amiridis added.
Last school year, all of South Carolina’s public four-year colleges enrolled a combined 2,300 freshmen from New York and New Jersey, 1,375 total from Virginia and Maryland, nearly 800 from Pennsylvania, and 600 from Massachusetts.
Palmetto State colleges also saw nearly 1,000 North Carolinians and 800 Georgians cross state lines for school, according to data from the state Commission on Higher Education.
“We need to continue to be even more aggressive,” Amiridis said. “Some of our out-of-state students come to us from states that will really have a big problem and the local flagships will try to keep those students there.”
Still, while out-of-state students make up the bulk of applicants, most of the students who actually enroll in the fall are typically South Carolinians.
SC colleges have frozen tuition for several years. University presidents say that’s not sustainable.
Over the past decade, the ratio of in-state versus out-of-state students at Clemson has grown tighter. South Carolina natives used to make up about 70% of the Upstate school’s student body. Today, it’s about 60%.
But President Jim Clements was quick to tell House members that even when South Carolina students don’t have the grades to be admitted to Clemson on their first try, the university works to get them in at a later date.
In the past three years, 93% of applicants from South Carolina were admitted either through early admission the summer before starting their degree, during standard fall admission or through Bridge to Clemson program, which allows students to start their degree at nearby Tri-County Technical College and then transfer to Clemson starting in their second year.
USC, too, has a 60/40 split.
Coastal Carolina’s mix trends the opposite direction with more coming from outside the state than in, while the College of Charleston is split down the middle.