Skip to content
The Ledger
The Rise · HBCU

Benedict College

School colors: Purple and gold

Columbia - Benedict College - 20231002131157
RoytheBoi7020, Taken on 2 October 2023, 13:11:57, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Columbia, South Carolina · Founded 1870 · Marching Tiger Band of Distinction

Private · Four-year · ~1,700 students

www.benedict.edu · official site

Founding

Benedict College was founded in 1870 by Bathsheba A. Benedict as Benedict Institute. On November 2, 1894, the South Carolina Legislature chartered it as a liberal arts college under the name Benedict College.

Source: History, Benedict College, read 2026-09-14.

What the school says about itself

On the record
  • The College made front-page news in the spring of 2018 when it became the first South Carolina college to lower its tuition by 26 percent. Source, read 2026-09-17.

On the official record

Campus address
1600 Harden Street, Columbia, SC 29204-1086
Control
Private not-for-profit
Students
~1,700 students
Directory id
217721
OPE id
00342000
Student aid
Takes part in Title IV student aid
Title III Part B list, FY 2026
Listed
Location
1600 Harden Street, Columbia, SC. See it on the Ledger map.
Where this location comes fromCampus location from IPEDS 2024-25This campus location comes from the federal IPEDS 2024-25 record, used as published, so the pin on the map is the campus.IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, Directory information (HD2024), 2024-25 collection, file dated 2025-09-21, retrieved 2026-09-14: coordinate 34.012941, -81.020403 as published. The Census Bureau geocoder also matched this address exactly on 2026-09-14.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, Directory information (HD2024), 2024-25 provisional data collection. Unit id 217721. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/data/HD2024.zip. File dated 2025-09-21.
  2. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. Higher Education Programs Eligibility Matrix, sheet 'HBCU', dated 2026-06-08. https://www.ed.gov/media/document/fy-2026-higher-education-programs-eligibility-matrix-june-8-2026-114185.xlsx.
  3. History, Benedict College. https://benedict.edu/about-benedict/history/. Read 2026-09-14.
  4. Students: 1,731 total, Fall 2023 (1,694 undergraduate, 37 graduate). IPEDS Fall Enrollment 2023, derived variables (DRVEF2023). https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/data/DRVEF2023.zip. File dated 2024-09-30, read 2026-09-17.
  5. Marching Tiger Band of Distinction, Benedict College. https://www.benedict.edu/campus-life/marching-tiger-band-of-distinction/. Read 2026-09-17.
  6. About Benedict, Benedict College. https://benedict.edu/about-benedict/. Read 2026-09-17.
  7. School colors: Purple and gold. Values shown are conventional approximations of the named colors. Benedict College, Wikipedia (revision 1372508455). Read 2026-09-16.
  8. Photograph: RoytheBoi7020, Taken on 2 October 2023, 13:11:57, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_-_Benedict_College_-_20231002131157.jpg. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
  9. U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder, batch address service, benchmark Public_AR_Current. https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/.

Enrollment is the official 2023 count, rounded. Tap a school for its source.

Machine-readable: /api/v1/hbcus/benedict-college · All HBCUs

These campuses have gathered generations. TheCookout is where the newBWS community gathers now. Pull up a plate.