University of
South Carolina Aiken
Public College in Aiken, SC. Six-year graduation rate 40%. Median 10-year earnings $45,603.
Ten years after entry, the median University of South Carolina Aiken student earns $45,603 — a solidly middle-of-the-pack result for an undergraduate institution. Completion is the weak point: 40% graduate within six years. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $24,275, neither a bargain nor a burden.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
An acceptance rate of 79% puts University of South Carolina Aiken on the accessible end — a realistic target for a broad range of applicants. 3,005 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. Yield sits at 28% — the remainder of admitted students enroll elsewhere or not at all. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 23% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, and test-optional applicants are not represented in them.
Test score bands (middle 50% of submitters)
These bands describe the enrolled first-years who submitted a score, not the entering class. Where most students apply test-optional the submitters are a self-selected, higher-scoring group.
| Test | 25th–75th percentile | Submitted |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading | 510–620 | 153 (23%) |
| SAT Math | 470–600 | |
| ACT Composite | 19–26 | 91 (14%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at University of South Carolina Aiken →Academics
Only 40% finish within six years, so roughly three in five students leave without the credential. Retention of 67% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. With 36% transferring out, this functions substantially as a stepping stone. At 16:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,808 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $12,236 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $8,987 at the $0–30k band to $17,502 at $110k+. 75% of students receive grant aid, averaging $8,718 — common but not automatic. About 48% borrow federally, roughly the national pattern.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 611 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $8,987 |
| $30–48k | $8,435 |
| $48–75k | $11,440 |
| $75–110k | $16,046 |
| $110k+ | $17,502 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,351 of these 2,808 students, totalling $8,698,012 — an average of $6,438 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Aiken County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)