Benedict College: A Legacy of Empowerment and Excellence
Founded in 1870 as Benedict Institute, Benedict College stands as a historic pillar of higher education in Columbia, South Carolina. Established under the auspices of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the institution was made possible by the vision and philanthropy of Bathsheba A. Benedict of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, who contributed $13,000 to purchase an 80-acre plantation—a former slave master’s estate—as the site for a school dedicated to educating recently freed African Americans. The college’s founding motto, to prepare men and women to be a “power for good in society,” remains its guiding principle to this day.
Originally a teachers’ college focused on training educators and preachers, the curriculum initially emphasized reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion. As the institution grew, it expanded to include traditional liberal arts disciplines as well as industrial trades such as carpentry, shoemaking, printing, and painting. On November 2, 1894, the South Carolina Legislature formally chartered the institution as a liberal arts college, and the name was officially changed from Benedict Institute to Benedict College. Buy fake USA diploma online.
Today, Benedict College is a private, co-educational, historically black college and university (HBCU) that has evolved into a comprehensive liberal arts institution. It offers 29 baccalaureate degree programs and two master’s degree programs across a wide range of disciplines. The college has distinguished itself as a STEM powerhouse, offering high-demand programs in cybersecurity, engineering, computer science, biology, and environmental health science. Notably, Benedict was the first HBCU to have its environmental engineering program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).
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Benedict College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degrees—a continuous accreditation it has held since 1946. Several of its programs also hold specialized national accreditations, including the School of Education, Social Work, Environmental Health Science, Studio Art, and the Tyrone Adam Burroughs School of Business and Economics. In 2025, the college’s MBA program earned highly coveted accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), further validating its commitment to academic excellence.
The college has garnered significant recognition in national rankings. In the 2026 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges, Benedict College ranked #80 among Regional Colleges South. Research.com named Benedict the “Most Popular South Carolina College” for 2026, ranking it in the top 20% of all South Carolina institutions and #384 nationally among over 1,700 degree-granting schools. The college has also been recognized as an HBCU of the Year by HBCU Digest and received the 2024 UNCF Institutional Excellence Award.
With a campus spanning 90 acres in South Carolina’s capital city, Benedict serves a diverse student body from 30 states and 26 countries. Its athletic teams, the Tigers, compete in NCAA Division II as members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC). Notable alumni include civil rights leader Modjeska Monteith Simkins, famed animator and illustrator Sanford Greene (known for work on *Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse* and *Luke Cage*), Harlem Globetrotter Kris Burton, and LeRoy T. Walker, the first African American president of the United States Olympic Committee.
In a bold move to increase access and affordability, Benedict College made history in 2018 as the first college in South Carolina to reduce its tuition by 26 percent. This commitment to accessibility, combined with its rich heritage and academic innovation, ensures that Benedict College continues to fulfill its founder’s vision of being a transformative “power for good in society” for generations to come.