University of South Carolina

In July of this year, the United States commemorated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and this fall, the University of South Carolina is marking a milestone of its own. Founded just 25 years after the signing of the Declaration, USC will celebrate its 225th anniversary throughout the 2026-27 academic year — beginning today (Aug. 18) with the start of the Fall 2026 semester.

The University of South Carolina has been named one of America’s Best-in-State Employers for South Carolina for 2026 by Forbes. Not only does this honor affirm USC’s commitment to providing top-notch resources and experiences to the over 10,000 faculty and staff across the USC system but also recognizes the strides the university has made in previous years to enhance the experience for its employees.

Physician Assistant Our faculty are deeply committed to your success as a future physician assistant. Throughout the program, you will gain extensive hands-on clinical experience, rigorous classroom instruction, and access to state-of-the-art technology. Together, these experiences prepare you to deliver high-quality patient care and to thrive as a collaborative member of an interprofessional health care team.

You enter the exam room. The patient in front of you, a 68-year-old male, is here because he feels dizzy and short of breath. You note his resting heart rate is elevated — 108 beats per minute. He has had a bad cold for a few days, he explains between shallow gasps, but didn’t think it was anything serious. What do you do next?

For one day each spring, a laboratory at the University of South Carolina transforms into a bustling pharmacy. Students rush around answering phones and helping customers who walk in with complex requests. Instructor Kathy Quarles Moore calls it “Chaos Lab.” “It’s a day that seems chaotic, like in a real pharmacy — think the first of the month, when everyone comes in.

There are several nondescript fish tanks scattered through the biology lab on the sixth floor of the Coker Life Sciences Building, where students study water fleas, algae and other aquatic organisms. But one tank in particular, a humming saltwater aquarium, is home to a small menagerie of tropical creatures: a pair of Darwin clownfish, two azure damselfish, one gold assessor and a black-capped basslet who prefers to hide within the craggy reef rocks.

Thousands of young women packed into Colonial Life Arena in early August, the air buzzing with excitement. The seats were filled Potential New Members — women eager to find a home amongst the University of South Carolina’s sororities. This year’s Panhellenic sorority recruitment is the biggest it’s ever been at USC: 2,560 women signed up. That’s the biggest recruitment class in the country this year, too. A major driver of interest in Panhellenic sorority life? Social media.

A successful University of South Carolina program that prepares future nursing faculty is expanding statewide to help address one of South Carolina's biggest healthcare workforce challenges. Expanding Nursing Faculty Pipeline is a USC College of Nursing initiative that partners with Clemson University and the Medical University of South Carolina to prepare the next generation of nurse educators.

Ashley Poston still has the three-ring binders she filled with stories in high school. They’re still annotated with notes from her friends. The New York Times bestselling author reads them sometimes, remembering the teenager who dreamed of magic, romance and epic adventures. “I know my craft is better now, but I still feel like I am that same teenager chasing the wonder of creating her first story,” says the 2012 USC alumna.

Next to a sealed envelope on a table, Alison Huppmann places a small plastic plate of simulated agar gel, its surface dotted with clustered growths. On the next table, she places a cup of red fluid beside a folder of test results. Next table: X-rays and a video of a child coughing. As a clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina’s School of Medicine Greenville, Huppmann teaches medical students in their first two years of the program — the pre-clerkship curriculum.