University of South Carolina supplemental essays
Yes, for some applicants. Every University of South Carolina supplement in 2026-27 depends on the college or program you apply to. Common App. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
Early Action closes October 15, 2026 and Regular Decision closes December 1, 2026. Every University of South Carolina prompt is printed on this page in full, with its word limit and who has to answer it.
Deadlines
| Round | Date |
|---|---|
| Early Action | October 15, 2026 |
| Regular Decision | December 1, 2026 |
Checked against sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/undergraduate_admissions/apply/for_freshmen. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Could not confirm
University of South Carolina asks for an essay but does not publish the prompt, so we cannot tell whether it is the Common App personal statement or a question of their own.
South Carolina says you choose "an essay prompt from the list provided in the application, regardless of application type" and never publishes that list. Open the Common App or the school’s own application before you assume there is nothing extra to write.
Your University of South Carolina checklist
No supplement every applicant writes: which ones you write depends on your college or program. The first deadline, Early Action, is October 15, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- One program-specific promptOnly if you apply to the college or program it names. All printed in full above.
It saves these rows to your essay manager, where each one carries a status you set yourself and the prompt stays attached to it. Add your other schools and they land on the same page, in deadline order. Nothing written yet? The topic quiz is free as well.
Free: this page, the checklist, the essay manager and the topic quiz. Paid: a written review of a finished draft, $49 an essay.
Paste your essay for a free read
Have it in a document? or drop one here (Word, PDF, or Text).
Not sure what a review is? What an AI college essay review can and cannot do, and what a college essay grader leaves out. What the read checks against University of South Carolina’s own prompts is on the University of South Carolina essay review page.
Getting into University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina admits 60.2% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1180-1360 on the SAT and 26-32 on the ACT.
About 6 in 10 applicants are admitted, at a college of 29,820 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1180 | 1270 | 1360 |
| SAT reading and writing | 600 | 640 | 680 |
| SAT math | 580 | 630 | 680 |
| ACT composite | 26 | 29 | 32 |
What SAT score do you need for University of South Carolina?
A 1360 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1270 at their midpoint, and a 1180 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 26, 29 and 32. A quarter of an enrolled class scoring under the 25th percentile is not a rounding error, so a score below the range is a reason to strengthen the rest of the application rather than a reason not to apply.
US Department of Education, College Scorecard (2026-09-17). Percentiles describe students who enrolled, not everyone admitted. SAT totals are the reading and math bands added together, which is how every source in this market reports them and is an approximation of about 10 to 20 points, because the two sections are correlated.
- What SAT score do you need for University of South Carolina?
- University of South Carolina sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1180-1360 on the SAT: a 1180 sits at the 25th percentile, 1270 at the median and 1360 at the 75th. A score at or above 1360 is a clear strength in the application; below 1180 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures University of South Carolina reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for University of South Carolina?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 26-32 on the ACT, with a composite of 29 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 26. Reported by University of South Carolina to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for University of South Carolina?
- The honest answer is that the federal data behind this page does not contain one. Colleges report their admit rate and their enrolled students' test scores to the Department of Education; they do not report a GPA distribution, so any site quoting an exact average GPA for University of South Carolina is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that University of South Carolina admits 60.2% of applicants, and the more selective a college is, the closer to the top of the class its admitted students sit and the more the strength of your course load counts alongside the number itself.
- How hard is it to get into University of South Carolina?
- University of South Carolina admits 60.2% of the people who apply, which is about 6 in 10 applicants. Numbers inside the reported range put you in a real position here, and the application itself decides the rest.
What University of South Carolina costs after grant aid, by family income, from the same federal data.
Sort your whole college list into reaches, targets and likelies, or find colleges that fit your GPA and test scores. Both are free and neither needs an account.
University of South Carolina essay questions, answered
- Does University of South Carolina have supplemental essays?
- Yes, for some applicants. Every University of South Carolina supplement in 2026-27 depends on the college or program you apply to. Every prompt is printed in full on this page.
- How many essays do you write for University of South Carolina in 2026-27?
- It depends on the college or program you apply to. University of South Carolina sets no supplement every applicant writes in 2026-27; the prompts on this page name who each one is for.
Schools with similar admit rates
University of South Carolina admits 60.2% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: College of Wooster (59.5%), UMass Amherst (59.7%), College of Charleston (60.0%), Worcester Polytechnic Institute (60.2%), University of New Hampshire (UNH) (60.4%), Penn State University (60.6%).