South Carolina School Counselor
School counselors in South Carolina serve pre-K through 12th grade. The state projects about 640 openings a year (2024 to 2034), and the May 2025 median wage is $60,340. South Carolina school counselor certification generally requires a master’s degree, completion of a state-approved preparation program, and a passing score on the required subject-area assessment. Five CACREP-accredited programs operate in-state.
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A kindergartner who won’t come out from under the desk. A seventh grader trying to name a career interest for the first time. A senior chasing a scholarship deadline. School counselors in South Carolina handle it all, often in the same week. Here’s what the work looks like, what it pays, and where you can train for it.
What School Counselors Do in South Carolina
A junior at a Columbia high school hasn’t touched her college applications. She has a 3.4 GPA, real potential, and is the first in her family to consider a four-year degree. She doesn’t know where to start, and her parents can’t walk her through the process. Her school counselor does: identifying schools that fit her goals and finances, walking through financial aid timelines, and making sure she submits before deadlines. That’s one student, one thread of a counselor’s day.
The rest of that day might include a group session with eighth graders on managing academic pressure, a meeting with a teacher about a student whose behavior changed after a family disruption, and a records review for a transfer student. Academic planning, social-emotional support, and crisis response can all land in one afternoon.
South Carolina school counselors work within the Department of Education’s school counseling and career guidance model, which state law requires. It organizes the work around three domains: learning to learn, learning to live, and learning to work. That means structured program planning and data-driven accountability, not just reactive check-ins. Counselors set goals tied to their school’s priorities, track student outcomes, and adjust their programs based on the data.
The emotional weight is real. Counselors work with students dealing with poverty, trauma, mental health challenges, and family instability. Caseloads can be high, especially in under-resourced districts. Most counselors describe it as demanding work, and the most meaningful they’ve done. You’ll want a master’s degree in school counseling before you step into that role. School counselor certification is issued by the South Carolina Department of Education.
Job Outlook in South Carolina
South Carolina projects about 640 openings a year for school counselors and related advisors from 2024 to 2034, according to Projections Central long-term occupational projections. Employment in the occupation is projected to grow 7.8% in the state over that decade, compared with 3.5% nationally in the same projection round. That’s roughly 570 new positions over ten years, so most openings will come from counselors retiring or leaving the field rather than from new jobs.
About 6,460 people worked in this occupation in South Carolina in May 2025, according to BLS wage survey data. The Columbia, Greenville, and Charleston metro areas account for about 3,880 of those jobs, though rural districts also hire.
School Counselor Salary in South Carolina
School counselors and related advisors in South Carolina earned a median of $60,340 in May 2025, about $4,000 below the national median of $64,330. These figures cover the federal category for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors, which includes some workers outside K-12 schools. In public schools, your pay typically follows your district’s salary schedule, so experience and degree level matter.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $39,800 |
| 25th | $47,970 |
| Median (50th) | $60,340 |
| 75th | $75,780 |
| 90th | $86,250 |
Location matters too. Charleston, Spartanburg, and Myrtle Beach are above the state median, while Greenville and Florence run a little under. The highest metro median in the state is Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal at $69,200, though it’s a small market with about 190 jobs in this category.
| Metro Area | Median Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| Charleston-North Charleston, SC | $62,140 |
| Spartanburg, SC | $61,980 |
| Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC | $61,940 |
| Columbia, SC | $60,070 |
| Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC | $58,590 |
| Florence, SC | $58,460 |
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in South Carolina
Five South Carolina universities offer a CACREP-accredited school counseling program. Four are listed below by the number of master’s graduates each reported for 2023, which reflects size, not quality. The fifth is named below the table.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clemson University | Greenville | M.Ed./Ed.S. | October 31, 2032 | 100 |
| The Citadel | Charleston | M.Ed. | March 31, 2031 | 22 |
| Winthrop University | Rock Hill | M.Ed. | October 31, 2033 | 22 |
| South Carolina State University | Orangeburg | M.Ed. | October 31, 2029 | 12 |
The University of South Carolina in Columbia is also CACREP-accredited, through October 31, 2031. It does not report graduates under the federal code used here, so it is listed separately rather than placed in the size order. Its school counseling degree is an Ed.S. (Education Specialist), not a master’s. The university says it awards the Ed.S. because CACREP requires at least 60 graduate hours.
South Carolina State University’s CACREP status is Accredited (Progress Report Required), with its current accreditation running through October 31, 2029.
South Carolina public school eighth graders have a graduation plan, and a counselor signs off on it
South Carolina’s Education and Economic Development Act, passed in 2005 and still in state law, requires South Carolina public school eighth graders to choose a career cluster and build an individual graduation plan. A certified school counselor must approve that plan, along with the student’s parents. State law requires school guidance counselors and career specialists to focus on guidance and counseling rather than administrative duties. If you work in a South Carolina middle or high school, expect career planning to be a regular part of the job.
How this table was built. Every program here is accredited by CACREP as a School Counseling program, verified against the CACREP register on September 30, 2026. Any program whose CACREP status shows a teach-out, closure, show-cause, or withdrawal is excluded, because a reader cannot reliably enroll in it. Programs are ordered by the number of master’s graduates each university reported to the federal IPEDS survey for 2023 under CIP code 13.1101, which measures size, not quality. That count covers the whole university, so a school running more than one school counseling master’s reports them together, and a low count can mean some graduates are reported under a different code. Treat the order as a rough guide to size rather than a ranking. Programs with the same count are listed alphabetically. Where a university reports no graduates under that code, we name it below the table rather than place it in the order. CACREP accreditation is not the same as state approval: check the South Carolina requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
- Steady openings: South Carolina projects about 640 school counselor openings a year from 2024 to 2034, most of them from turnover rather than new positions.
- Pay a little under the national median: The May 2025 state median is $60,340, and Charleston, Spartanburg, and Myrtle Beach all come in above it.
- Five accredited programs: Clemson, The Citadel, Winthrop, South Carolina State, and the University of South Carolina all hold CACREP accreditation in school counseling.
- Career planning is built into the job: State law requires counselors to approve each public school student’s individual graduation plan, starting in eighth grade.
Narrowed it to a program or two? The next questions are how long it takes, how the internship works, and what South Carolina needs from you before you can be certified.
