Career Training Path › Culinary & pastry schools › South Carolina
Culinary & pastry schools in South Carolina
South Carolina has 7 accredited campuses awarding culinary credentials. If you finish and work as a chef in South Carolina, expect to start around $47,640–$60,120 and reach a median of $71,860 with experience; the top quarter earn $79,050 or more (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025, South Carolina). Graduates of these South Carolina programs — every graduate, whatever job they took — earned a median of $19,994 in their first year, against $24,208 nationally; that is the figure used to rank campuses below.
What chefs and head cooks earn in South Carolina
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025; 2,650 employed in South Carolina. National median: $62,470.
Campuses in South Carolina, ranked by what their graduates earned
Cities: BeaufortCharlestonConwayDenmarkGreenvilleSpartanburg
| Campus | City | Type | Grads / yr | Earnings, yr 1 | Program debt | Completion | Cost / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horry-Georgetown Technical College | Conway | Public | 71 | $19,994 | $16,500 | 38% | not reported |
| Greenville Technical College | Greenville | Public | 37 | $19,111 | $18,734 | not reported | not reported |
| Trident Technical College | Charleston | Public | 127 | not reported | $11,666 | 30% | not reported |
| Spartanburg Community College | Spartanburg | Public | 29 | not reported | not reported | 28% | not reported |
| Technical College of the Lowcountry | Beaufort | Public | 13 | not reported | not reported | 18% | not reported |
| Bob Jones University | Greenville | non-profit | 6 | not reported | not reported | not reported | not reported |
| Denmark Technical College | Denmark | Public | 6 | not reported | not reported | 13% | not reported |
Earnings are median wages and self-employment income reported to the IRS (W-2 and Schedule SE) for graduates who received federal aid and were working and not enrolled, measured in the calendar year after finishing. They are pay only: health insurance, retirement contributions and other benefits are not included.
Ranked by median earnings of this program's graduates one year after completion (College Scorecard field-of-study, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) 2022-23 Completions survey; College Scorecard June 2026; Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP), September 2026); campuses without a reported figure follow, by credentials awarded. "Program debt" is the median federal loan debt for graduates of this program at this campus. Completion is the campus-wide 150%-of-time rate. "Not reported" means the federal file suppresses the value for privacy.