2024 Best college rankings: Clemson, Furman, Wofford earn top marks among SC schools.

Nina Tran, Greenville News
Updated ·3 min read

Upstate South Carolina colleges and universities learned their rankings in this year's edition of the U.S. News and World Report's 2024 Best Colleges.

Furman University ranked No. 1 among National Liberal Arts Colleges in SC and No. 46, nationally. For National Universities, Clemson University ranked in the top spot for SC, scoring No. 86 nationally.

Clemson University, University of South Carolina, Columbia, Furman University, Wofford College and Presbyterian College are ranked as the Top 5 colleges in SC, respectively.

The data comes from U.S. News and World Report's 2024 Best Colleges rankings, which has undergone major methodological changes. According to the website, the top-ranked colleges stayed mostly steady from last year despite the removal and addition of several factors.

Four new ranking factors related to faculty research were added. These include citations per publication, field-weighted citation impact and the share of publications cited in the top 5% and 25% of the most cited journals by CiteScore. This accounts for 4% of the overall rankings formula, said the website. Certain undergraduate programs were also considered, as well as peer assessment rankings of medium to large undergraduate psychology and economics programs.

Dropped this year were five longstanding ranking calculations: proportion of graduates who borrowed federal loans, high school class standing, alumni giving rate, terminal degree faculty and class size.

US News changed its college rankings: Should you use them in your school search?

Here's how SC colleges and universities fared despite these changes:

Upstate colleges ranked in the top 25 in SC

∎ No. 1: Clemson University, Clemson (86 National Universities)

∎ No. 2: Furman University, Greenville (46 National Liberal Arts Colleges)

∎ No. 3: Wofford College, Spartanburg (59 National Liberal Arts Colleges)

∎ No. 4: Presbyterian College, Clinton (139 National Liberal Arts Colleges)

∎ No. 5: Lander University, Greenwood (20 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 6: University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg (22 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 7: Converse University, Spartanburg (23 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 8: Bob Jones University, Greenville (24 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 9: Anderson University, Anderson (41 Regional Universities South)

Top 25 colleges in SC

∎ No. 1: Clemson University, Clemson (86 National Universities)

∎ No. 2: University of South Carolina, Columbia (124 National Universities)

∎ No. 3: Furman University, Greenville (46 National Liberal Arts Colleges)

∎ No. 4: Wofford College, Spartanburg (59 National Liberal Arts Colleges)

∎ No. 5: Presbyterian College, Clinton (139 National Liberal Arts Colleges)

∎ No. 6: Claflin College, Orangeburg (159 National Liberal Arts Colleges)

∎ No. 7: The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, Charleston (2 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 8: College of Charleston, Charleston (9 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 9: Newberry College, Newberry (10 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 10: Winthrop University, Rock Hill (11 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 11: Lander University, Greenwood (20 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 12: University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg (22 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 13: Converse University, Spartanburg (23 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 14: Bob Jones University, Greenville (24 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 15: Columbia College, Columbia (33 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 16: Coastal Carolina University, Conway & North Greenville University, Tigerville (36 Regional Universities South, tie)

∎ No. 17: Anderson University, Anderson (41 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 18: Erskine College, Due West (43 Regional Colleges South)

∎ No. 19: University of South Carolina Beaufort, Bluffton (44 Regional Colleges South)

∎ No. 20: Columbia International University, Columbia (45 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 21: Southern Wesleyan University, Central (52 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 22: Voorhees University, Denmark (52 Regional Colleges South)

∎ No. 23: Francis Marion University, Florence (55 Regional Universities South)

∎ No. 24: Charleston Southern University, Charleston & University of South Carolina Aiken, Aiken (59 Regional Universities South, tie)

∎ No. 25: Limestone University, Gaffney (63 Regional Colleges South)

Nina Tran covers trending topics. Reach her via email at ntran@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: See where SC colleges, universities rank in US News and World Report