You’ll provide any high school courses/grades you are taking your senior year, select your  major, complete the essay, and list your extracurricular activities, honors and awards. You will also decide whether you want us to consider your ACT / SAT scores in the review process.

All information submitted with your application will be used to determine admission and general university merit-based scholarship award decisions.

Regardless of which application you select, you must pay the nonrefundable $65 application fee or use an ACT, College Board, NACAC, SCOIR or Common App application fee waiver, if eligible.

If you have an application fee waiver, upload it on the payment page before submitting the application.

Upload a legible unofficial copy of your high school transcript in JPG or PDF format. After you submit the application, we’ll review your uploaded transcript and let you know if we need an official one. The unofficial transcript must list grades through the end of your junior year and include your full name and high school name. Do not send an official high school transcript to the admissions office unless it is requested.

If you already graduated from high school, request to have your official transcript sent to USC’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

USC is test-optional through the fall, spring and summer 2026 terms. This means you are not required to submit SAT and / or ACT scores for admission or merit scholarship consideration. You will select “Yes” or “No” on the application to indicate whether you want us to review your test scores as part of the admission process. 

For Summer and Fall 2026 applicants, USC will superscore the ACT English, Math and Reading sections regardless of when the exam was taken. If you took either test more than once, we will superscore using all tests taken. 

USC’s deadline for receipt of test scores is based on the credentials deadline associated with your application type. If test scores are not received by the credentials deadline, your application will be considered on a space-available basis. We require official scores only if you enroll in USC.

Our SAT code is 5818 and our ACT code is 3880. 

Students should check “yes” or “no” on the general university application to indicate their interest in applying to the South Carolina Honors College. The honors application will be added to their USC Admissions Portal approximately 48 hours after submitting the freshman application. Students will receive an email from our office once the application is available on their portal.

Students who originally answered “no” on the freshman application and change their minds can email admhonor@mailbox.sc.edu to request access to the Honors College application.

The Honors College application requires two additional essays and one letter of recommendation. Submission of a resume is optional.  

A letter of recommendation is required by the Dec. 1 credentials deadline. There are two ways to submit the letter:

• Your high school counselor can submit the letter on your behalf via a service such as Common App, Scoir or Naviance. This is our preferred method.
• Your recommender can email the letter to admhonor@mailbox.sc.edu.

Helpful Hints:

• Ask someone who knows you best to write your letter of recommendation. This can include a teacher, school counselor, coach, community leader or employer.
• Only one letter of recommendation will be considered during the review process.
• Please ask your recommender to only submit your letter once.
  
• If you included a letter of recommendation with your Common Application, it will be used to satisfy this requirement.