2025 Best Nursing Bachelor's Degree Schools in South Carolina

If you pursue a bachelor's degree in nursing, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #2 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.

College Factual looked at 14 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Nursing Bachelor's Degree Schools in South Carolina ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,609 bachelor's degrees in nursing to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Nursing School for Your Bachelor's Degree

Your choice of nursing for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to nursing students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other nursing students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt nursing students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized nursing related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for nursing students working on their bachelor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Nursing Schools

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Nursing Bachelor's Degree Schools in South Carolina list, to help you choose the best school for you.

To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Nursing in South Carolina

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in nursing.

10 Top South Carolina Schools for a Bachelor's in Nursing

1

University of South Carolina - Columbia
Columbia, SC

241 Annual Graduates

$73,872 Median Starting Salary

$40,217 Median Student Debt

It's hard to beat University of South Carolina - Columbia if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in nursing. Located in the midsize city of Columbia, UofSC is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Soon after graduation, nursing bachelor's recipients usually earn about $73,872 in their early careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in nursing from University of South Carolina - Columbia

2

Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, SC

188 Annual Graduates

$68,199 Median Starting Salary

$39,500 Median Student Debt

Medical University of South Carolina is a great decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in nursing. MUSC is a small public university located in the city of Charleston.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the nursing program earn about $68,199 in their early career salary.

More information about a bachelor’s in nursing from Medical University of South Carolina

3

Clemson University
Clemson, SC

235 Annual Graduates

$74,206 Median Starting Salary

$43,000 Median Student Debt

Clemson University is a great choice for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in nursing. Located in the midsize suburb of Clemson, Clemson is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the nursing program state that they receive average early career wages of $74,206.

More information about a bachelor’s in nursing from Clemson University

4

Anderson University South Carolina
Anderson, SC

87 Annual Graduates

$73,882 Median Starting Salary

$41,369 Median Student Debt

Anderson University South Carolina is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in nursing. Located in the small city of Anderson, Anderson University South Carolina is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

After graduation, nursing bachelor's recipients generally earn around $73,882 in their early careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in nursing from Anderson University South Carolina

5

University of South Carolina - Upstate
Spartanburg, SC

257 Annual Graduates

$75,849 Median Starting Salary

$11,915 Median Student Debt

USC Upstate is a small public university located in the suburb of Spartanburg.

Those nursing students who get their bachelor's degree from University of South Carolina - Upstate earn $3,125 more than the typical nursing grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in nursing from University of South Carolina - Upstate

6

Francis Marion University
Florence, SC

82 Annual Graduates

$70,110 Median Starting Salary

$11,888 Median Student Debt

Francis Marion University is a small public university located in the rural area of Florence.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the nursing program report average early career earnings of $70,110.

More information about a bachelor’s in nursing from Francis Marion University

7

University of South Carolina - Aiken
Aiken, SC

109 Annual Graduates

$72,714 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large suburb of Aiken, UofSC Aiken is a public university with a small student population.

Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the nursing program make about $72,714 in the first couple years of working.

More information about a bachelor’s in nursing from University of South Carolina - Aiken

8

Lander University
Greenwood, SC

110 Annual Graduates

$78,485 Median Starting Salary

Located in the distant town of Greenwood, Lander University is a public university with a small student population.

Bachelor's recipients from the nursing major at Lander University earn $5,761 more than the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a bachelor’s in nursing from Lander University

9

Charleston Southern University
Charleston, SC

80 Annual Graduates

$66,310 Median Starting Salary

Located in the midsize city of Charleston, CSU is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

Soon after graduating, nursing bachelor's recipients generally earn an average of $66,310 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in nursing from Charleston Southern University

10

South University, Columbia
Columbia, SC

37 Annual Graduates

$77,635 Median Starting Salary

$22,460 Median Student Debt

South University, Columbia is a fairly small private for-profit university located in the large suburb of Columbia.

Nursing bachelor's degree recipients from South University, Columbia receive an earnings boost of around $4,911 above the average income of nursing graduates.

More information about a bachelor’s in nursing from South University, Columbia

Best Nursing Colleges in the Southeast Region

Explore all the Best Nursing Schools in the Southeast Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	225	9,015
Georgia	224	3,954
Tennessee	220	3,180
North Carolina	213	3,488
Virginia	213	3,096
Kentucky	187	2,530
Alabama	184	2,607
Louisiana	171	1,963
Mississippi	169	1,307
Arkansas	167	1,371
West Virginia	147	774

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Nursing

Nursing is one of 34 different types of Health Professions programs to choose from.

Nursing Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Registered Nursing	1,609

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Public Health	753
Health & Medical Administrative Services	147
Other Health Professions	111
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	83
Health Sciences & Services	58
Allied Health Professions	49
Communication Sciences	35
Mental & Social Health Services	24
Medical Illustration & Informatics	23
Health/Medical Prep Programs	19

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Aleksahgabrielle. More about our data sources and methodologies.