CSU welcomes more than 1000 new students this fall

By Jenna Johnson | August 31, 2022

More than 1,000 new Bucs joined Charleston Southern University in Fall 2022. Photo by Ty Cornett

Charleston Southern University welcomed its largest incoming freshman class since 2016 last week—beating both enrollment and housing goals. In addition to over 1,000 new traditional undergraduate students, CSU’s total enrollment increased 5% since last year at 3,537 students in its undergraduate, graduate and online programs. Notable stats from this year’s class include:

1,052 freshmen/transfers
39% are from the Tricounty area; 77% are from South Carolina
22 countries are represented
22% Black/African American, 59% White/Caucasian, 7% Hispanic, 1% Asian, <1% Native Hawaiian, >1% American Indian or Alaskan
61% female, 39% male
Top 5 Majors: nursing, business, biology, kinesiology, education
Average GPA: 3.4 unweighted, 4.83 weighted
Average SAT score: 1052
15 valedictorians
108 graduated top 10% of their class
370 are first generation college students
98 are legacy Bucs (one or both parents are CSU alumni)

The campus once again saw a dramatic increase in residential students enrolled this fall. Though CSU opened a new residence hall three years ago, this is the second consecutive year that CSU exceeded housing goals and converted the Wingate Hotel to on-campus housing in order to accommodate the additional residents.

National sites have named CSU as one of the top-ranked safest college campuses in South Carolina for several years. According to this year’s StateUniversity.com rankings, CSU is the #2 safest campus in the state. It also places high rank in academia as one of the top 3 hardest colleges to get into in the state, according to Niche.com.

Not far behind two of the largest state schools, CSU has also ranked as a top best college athletics in South Carolina by Niche.com.

The private, Christian university has also made high national rankings for its online degrees. The most recent, by US News and World Report, has CSU listed as #29 nationally for best online bachelor’s programs and #21 for best online bachelor’s programs for veterans.

Overall, Charleston Southern continues to grow, in population, in degree programs, and in facilities. Most notably are the recent launch of the Aeronautics program and Doctor of Physical Therapy program, as well as the expansion of the Engineering program and the fully online offering of the Master of Science in Clinical Counseling.

To learn more about Charleston Southern University, go to charlestonsouthern.edu.