On Friday, June 21, the University of South Carolina Board of Trustees approved tuition rates for the upcoming 2019-2020 academic year.  Because of the General Assembly’s reinvestment in higher education this past legislative session, the Board was able to minimize greatly the impact of tuition increases for all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.

The Board was able to allocate institutional resources in a way that allows for a significant reduction in law school tuition this year for South Carolina residents.  Resident law school tuition and fees for the combined Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters will be $24,472, a reduction of more than $5,000 from last year’s rates.

Although the University was not able to eliminate completely any increase in non-resident tuition, the Board was able to limit the increase in non-resident rates to less than 2%.  Non-resident scholar law school tuition and fees for the combined Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters will be $32,938, an increase of $558 above last year’s rates.  Full non-resident law school tuition and fees for the combined Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters will be $55,480, an increase of $978 above last year’s rates.

The Board’s action not only addresses tuition concerns, but should help keep more of the Palmetto State’s future leaders in South Carolina for their legal education. It also aligns our tuition costs more closely with neighboring public law schools.

“Because we already have received a sufficient number of seat deposits to fill our entering class, we do not anticipate that this good news will change the size of the first-year class,” said Rob Wilcox, dean of the School of Law.  “The additional state funding, however, has made it possible for the university to be responsive in a material way to financial pressures experienced by many of our students, without reducing the financial resources necessary for our school.”