Columbia College Data & Information Overview

Want the scoop on Columbia College? We've put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors Columbia College South Carolina offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more. Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you'll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning
• Related Schools

How Well Is Columbia College Ranked?

2021 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Columbia College was awarded 12 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is social work.

Overall Quality

Columbia College South Carolina is ranked #1,137 out of 1,715 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2021 Best Colleges list.

Columbia College South Carolina also holds the #16 spot on the Best Colleges in South Carolina ranking.

See all of the rankings for Columbia College.

Is It Hard to Get Into Columbia College South Carolina?

Acceptance Rate

Because it has a high acceptance rate of 87%, some consider Columbia College South Carolina to be a safety school. But don't just assume that admittance is in the bag. Make sure to spend enough time on your application so that it is in tip-top shape.

Average Test Scores

About 40% of students accepted to Columbia College South Carolina submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 490 and 580. Math scores were between 460 and 540.

Columbia College South Carolina received ACT scores from 57% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 17 and 21.

Learn more about Columbia College admissions.

Columbia College Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At Columbia College, this ratio is 13 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Columbia College is 42%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Columbia College

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at Columbia College is 70%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Columbia College South Carolina for first-time, full-time students is 43%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Columbia College.

Below Average Overall Diversity at Columbia College South Carolina

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 1,102 undergraduates at Columbia College South Carolina with 763 being full-time and 339 being part-time.

Columbia College South Carolina Diversity Score

When calculating the overall diversity score for a school, College Factual does not just look at the percentage of women and racial-ethnic minorities*. Instead, it looks to see how good of a mixture a school has with regard to gender, ethnicity, age, and location of origin.

The overall diversity score for Columbia College South Carolina is 24.57 out of 100. This is below average when compared to other schools in the United States.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Columbia College.

How Much Does Columbia College Cost?

The overall average net price of Columbia College South Carolina is $16,034. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Columbia College South Carolina

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$14,387	$14,872	$18,311	$17,226	$18,892

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Columbia College South Carolina, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Columbia College South Carolina, approximately 73% of students took out student loans averaging $6,615 a year. That adds up to $26,460 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Columbia College South Carolina is 6.6%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you'll still want to keep this in mind when taking out student loans.

Get more details about paying for Columbia College.

How Much Money Do Columbia College South Carolina Graduates Make?

Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Columbia College South Carolina with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $34,600 in their early years. This is about 13% less that the average pay for college graduates overall. However, graduates with your major may make more.

See which majors at Columbia College make the most money.

Location of Columbia College

Located in Columbia, South Carolina, Columbia College is a private not-for-profit institution. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

Get more details about the location of Columbia College.

Contact details for Columbia College South Carolina are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	1301 Columbia College Dr, Columbia, SC 29203
Phone:	803-786-3012
Website:	www.columbiasc.edu/
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/columbiacollegesc
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/#!/ColumbiaKoala

Columbia College Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 48 majors graduated from Columbia College. Of these students, 434 received undergraduate degrees and 109 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors	Bachelor’s Degrees	Average Salary of Graduates
Criminal Justice & Corrections	109	NA
Homeland Security	40	NA
Business Administration & Management	30	$36,100
Social Work	27	$31,100
General Psychology	22	$19,700
General Biology	20	NA
Communication & Media Studies	20	$34,100
Behavioral Science	17	$23,100
Teacher Education Grade Specific	16	$29,600
Human Development & Family Studies	13	NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Columbia College along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Columbia College South Carolina

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2017-2018, 642 students took at least one online class at Columbia College. This is a decrease from the 789 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	642	387
2016-2017	789	551
2015-2016	726	543
2014-2015	614	386
2013-2014	329	134

Learn more about online learning at Columbia College.

Related Schools

If you’re considering Columbia College, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

• Mount St. Joseph University
• North Central University
• Oakwood University
• Seton Hill University

Curious on how these schools stack up against Columbia College South Carolina? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Beyond My Ken under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.