State Guide · 2 ABA Schools · 509 data 2025
South Carolina law school requirements
South Carolina has 2 ABA-approved law schools, with LSAT medians from 154 to 162. Together they took 4,329 completed applications, made 1,744 offers and filled 462 first-year seats in 2025. Every number on this page comes from those schools' own ABA Standard 509 reports.
ABA schools
2
1 public, 1 private
LSAT median range
154 to 162
across the state
First-year seats
462
from 4,329 applications
Tuition range
$38,100 to $48,600
full time, non-resident
The 2 ABA-approved South Carolina law schools
| School | Type | LSAT | GPA | Accept | 1L | Tuition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of South Carolina Joseph F. RiceColumbia | Public | 162 | 3.67 | 29.9% | 221 | $38,100 |
| Charleston School of LawCharleston | Private | 154 | 3.51 | 50.2% | 241 | $48,600 |
What the state data shows
University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice reports the highest LSAT median in the state at 162, with a 3.67 GPA median and a 29.9% acceptance rate on 2,114 applications. The spread of 8 LSAT points between the top and bottom of the state means a single score can be a stretch at one South Carolina school and comfortably above median at another. The national median of school medians is 159, so South Carolina's strongest reported median sits 3 points above it.
1 of the 2 schools charge residents less than non-residents, so residency status is worth checking before you apply. The lowest published resident tuition belongs to University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice at $20,322 a year, where the median full-time grant is $12,562. Across the state, published non-resident tuition runs from $38,100 to $48,600, a gap of $10,500 a year before fees, living costs or scholarship.
1 of the 2 schools reporting bar outcomes beat the weighted average pass rate in the jurisdictions where their graduates sat. University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice reports the state's highest first-time pass rate at 83.25% from 209 first-time takers, against a 75.81% jurisdiction average. Bar admission is granted state by state, so the jurisdiction you intend to practise in matters as much as the school.
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Data: ABA Standard 509 Information Report (2025), published for consumer disclosure, retrieved from the ABA Required Disclosures portal on 2026-09-01, with bar passage figures from the same portal's Bar Passage Outcomes report for the class of 2024. Restated in our own structure; no ABA document or file is reproduced here.