Columbia, SC (population: 130,246) has six medicine and health schools within its city limits. Columbia College, the highest ranked school in the city with a medicine and health program, has a total student population of 1,444. It is the 597th highest ranked school in the USA and the 10th highest in the state of South Carolina (#1 is Clemson University).
Medicine and Health students from Columbia schools who go on to become medicine and health professionals, office administrators, massage therapists, trainers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 271,710 people working as medical and health services managers alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $90,970. Also, Registered nurses make on average $66,530 per year and there are about 2,583,770 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Columbia area alone, there are 7,740 employed registered nurses earning an average salary of $59,830. Medical and health services managers in this area earn $78,300/yr and there are 850 employed.
Columbia lies in Richland county, which is one of the 27 counties in South Carolina. Overall, the Columbia area has 334,600 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 0.9% unemployment rate, $18.76/hr average worker wage, and a $39,020 average annual salary. Thus, about 2.551 out of every 1000 jobs in Columbia are held by medical and health services managers, and 23.134/1000 are held by registered nurses.
Of the 6 medicine and health schools in Columbia, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, University of Phoenix-Columbia Campus comes out as the most expensive ($25,171/yr) for medicine and health students, with Allen University as the lowest, reported at only $11,169/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Columbia |
| Denmark | SC | - | 2 | 12.8531 | 54 | 51.7 miles |
| Hartsville | SC | - | 2 | 23.3042 | 83 | 52.1 miles |
| Graniteville | SC | - | 1 | 8.50122 | 49 | 62.2 miles |
| Rock Hill | SC | 72,341 | 5 | 30.0256 | 144 | 62.8 miles |
| North Augusta | SC | - | 1 | 27.4739 | 4 | 72.2 miles |
| Augusta | GA | - | 8 | 15.8236 | 215 | 75.4 miles |
| Martinez | GA | - | 2 | 23.4797 | 14 | 77.2 miles |
| Charlotte | NC | 723,514 | 18 | 27.5295 | 455 | 80.3 miles |
| Belmont | NC | - | 2 | 36.2771 | 82 | 83.6 miles |
| Gastonia | NC | 75,340 | 1 | 28.6194 | 5 | 85.2 miles |
| Spartanburg | SC | 40,665 | 7 | 35.0859 | 216 | 86.0 miles |
| North Charleston | SC | 99,930 | 3 | 24.6487 | 24 | 92.3 miles |
| Laurinburg | NC | - | 1 | 18.8047 | 40 | 96.0 miles |