Colleges in the District
Established in 1854 and related to the United Methodist Church, Wofford College is an independent, Phi Beta Kappa liberal arts college of 1,525 students located in downtown Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States. The historic 175-acre campus is recognized as a national arboretum and features “The Village,” which provides distinctive apartment-style housing for seniors. Wofford is listed on the President’s Community Service Honor Roll and in the annual “Open Doors” report for providing studies abroad opportunities for its students. Forbes, Kiplinger’s, U.S. News, USA Today and other publications have recognized the college for educational quality and value.Wofford’s mission is to provide superior liberal arts education that prepares its students for extraordinary and positive contributions to society. The focus of Wofford’s mission is upon fostering commitment to excellence in character, performance, leadership, service to others, and lifelong learning.Operating continuously on its original campus in the City of Spartanburg, the Wofford College Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The campus now consists of 48 buildings on 175 acres. In 2002, The entire campus was designated as an arboretum, and Wofford is a member of the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta. The campus has been designated as "the Roger Milliken Arboretum." Wofford has a 78 percent four-year graduation rate (82.3 graduate within 6 years) and in 2009, a 37% percent alumni giving rate. The mid-50% SAT range of the class that entered in 2010 was 1,160-1,340. 56 percent of the incoming freshman class in 2010 finished in the top 10 percent of their high school class. Wofford’s performance on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) ranks with the nation’s best colleges and universities.In 2010, Forbes ranked it 58th in America's Best Colleges.
University of South Carolina Upstate
The University of South Carolina Upstate is a public university located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Formerly known as the University of South Carolina Spartanburg, the school changed its name in the summer of 2004. The University of South Carolina Upstate is the fastest growing university in South Carolina offering both undergraduate and graduate programs for students in the Upstate and surrounding areas. One of four accredited four-year schools in the University of South Carolina System, it is home to approximately 220 full time faculty. It is fully accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Founded by Dr. G.B. Hodge, the Spartanburg Regional Campus(as it was first known) opened its doors in the fall of 1967 to 177 students on the first floor of the Spartanburg General Hospital nursing residence. The campus was originally established to help avert a serious healthcare problem catered to nursing students, but as student enrollment continued to rapidly increase, the school quickly became a four-year university in 1975 offering more majors. In 1994, the University began offering graduate degrees. Today's thriving campus boasts 330 acres and an enrollment of 5,500 students. Aside from its presence in Spartanburg, University of South Carolina Upstate has become the largest educational provider in the University Center of Greenville, a consortium of seven institutions of higher learning in Greenville, South Carolina. In recent years the U.S. News and World Report has ranked the University of South Carolina Upstate as one of the top four public comprehensive colleges in the South.
Spartanburg Community College (Main Campus and Downtown Location)
Spartanburg Community College (SCC) is a public, two-year, multi-site, suburban college serving the citizens and communities of Cherokee, Spartanburg and Union Counties of South Carolina. SCC implements its mission through programs, services and partnerships that include: College Credit Programs, Corporate and Community Education Programs, Student Development Programs and Services, Economic Development Services. Spartanburg Community College (SCC) provides affordable access to high-quality technical, transfer and lifelong professional and personal development programs in a teaching and learning environment that prepares students for success. The College is a key community partner in advancing the Upstate’s economy. A recent name change has taken effect in late 2006, with the "Technical" being dropped, and now has come to be known as Spartanburg Community College. Dr. Para M. Jones is the college president, taking the helm in October 2009.
Spartanburg Methodist College is a private, two-year institution of higher learning, or junior college, located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It is the only independent, regionally-accredited, residential two-year college in South Carolina. As a junior college, SMC gives students the opportunity to focus on their freshman and sophomore years of college in order to prepare to transfer to a four-year college or university. SMC offers a liberal arts curriculum designed to help prepare students for this transition. Spartanburg Methodist College was founded as Textile Industrial Institute in 1911 by Dr. David English Camak, a visionary Methodist minister. At its founding as a work-study cooperative, TII served young adults working in area textile mills by offering high school level courses in preparation for advanced education or employment. In 1940, the high school classes were dropped from the TII curriculum. In 1942, Textile Industrial Institute became Spartanburg Junior College and for the next twenty-five years focused its efforts on providing associate degrees designed for transfer into a wide variety of bachelor degree programs.Today, Spartanburg Methodist College serves a highly diverse student body from several states of the United States as well as from several different nations of the world. The College seeks to meet the educational needs of its student body by enabling each student to meet the challenges of a technologically based future. Spartanburg Methodist College offers a variety of educational programs to meet the needs of the traditional college student and of the non-traditional working adult.The college is led by a Board of Trustees comprising 24 members, with six clergy members and 18 laity. Terms are staggered on a three-year basis. Colleen Perry Keith has served as the College's seventh president since July 1, 2009. Spartanburg Methodist College is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and with the South Carolina Annual Conference. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the University Senate of the United Methodist Church.
Sherman College of Chiropractic is a private college founded in 1973, offering the doctor of chiropractic degree, that was named after Lyle Sherman. The college is home to approximately 200 students representing 26 states and 15 countries and has more than 3,000 alumni around the world. Sherman college supports the "straight" vertebral subluxation-based focus as different from diagnosis and symptomatic treatment focus of "mixed" U.S. chiropractic schools. The name of the college was changed to Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic the late 1970s, but changed back to the original name in 2009. Sherman College also has digital x-ray services in the Health Center for use of interns and local chiropractors. The program consists of 14 quarters of study: classroom and hands-on instruction, internship in the Chiropractic Health Center, research opportunities, and community services. To enter the program, students must have 90 hours of college credits, including hours in lab sciences. Sherman College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and by the Commission of Accreditation of the Council on Chiropractic Education, as well as being licensed by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. The 80-acre campus is located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The college operates a Chiropractic Health Center on its campus open to the public, which provides more than 30,000 patient visits each year. Sherman was the first East Coast chiropractic college to use digital x-ray imaging for health center and local chiropractor patients. The Health Center also supports Chiropractic research on subluxation.
Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine
The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM), formally named the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, is a private, non-profit osteopathic medical school with two campuses: the Virginia Campus (VCOM-VC) located in Blacksburg, Virginia and the Carolinas Campus (VCOM-CC) located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The Virginia Campus is located in the Corporate Research Center of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The school is one of 25 colleges of osteopathic medicine in the United States, and one of four located in the Appalachian Region. On June 2, 2007, VCOM graduated its first class of 139 students. The school was founded in 2002, when Virginia Tech and the Harvey W. Peters Research Foundation worked together to start up a new private school of osteopathic medicine called the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM). The mission of the school is to help alleviate the critical shortage of physicians in Appalachia. The school places primary recruiting on students from a rural Appalachian background, particularly the rural sections of central and southwestern Virginia and North Carolina. While students are fully prepared to specialize in any division of medicine, the primary focus of the college is the training of primary care physicians to serve a rural population. VCOM is incorporated as a private, non-profit institution with no state interest, but it is very closely affiliated with Virginia Tech on an operational level.
