South Carolina bar exam: dates, fees and scores

South Carolina filing windows and fees

For the February exam, filing runs August 1 through 31 at $1,000, and September 1 through 30 at $1,500. For the July exam, filing runs December 1 through January 10 at $1,000, and January 11 through 31 at $1,500. A UBE transfer application is $1,000 and has no late window. The fee table lists a separate charge of $750 for applicants who have been admitted for a year or more. Accommodation requests must be uploaded by November 1 for the February exam and April 1 for the July exam.

Source: Fees and Deadlines ↗

South Carolina's required UBE score and results

South Carolina's required score on the UBE is 266. Results usually come out in late April and late October, posted in the applicant's Bar Admissions account and on the Supreme Court's website. Applicants order UBE and MPRE transcripts from NCBE.

Documents must be certified copies, and character affidavits filed with an application after April 1, 2025 must be uploaded already signed and notarized. Digital and "s/" signatures are not accepted, and neither are electronic signatures on the other forms.

Source: South Carolina bar admissions FAQ ↗

The Committee on Character and Fitness in South Carolina

Every application goes to the Committee, which runs its own investigation. Approval in another state does not carry over, so a lawyer already admitted elsewhere is still reviewed. The office lists the usual reasons for a hearing: honor code violations, failing to disclose something on a law school or bar application, criminal charges or violations, employment terminations, and financial delinquencies.

Interviews are arranged by Committee members and may be virtual or in person, and the notice appears in the applicant's portal. Whether an applicant called to a hearing may still sit for the exam is the Supreme Court's decision under Rule 402(g). An applicant denied by both the Committee and the Court may file a new application with the fee two years after the denial (Rule 402(g)(3)).

What triggers a South Carolina character hearing, and how it runs

The Committee on Character & Fitness has twenty-four members of the South Carolina Bar appointed by the Supreme Court for five-year terms. A panel may take and hear testimony, issue subpoenas for witnesses, and require an applicant to appear for a personal interview or a hearing. The Committee investigates every applicant independently, so character approval in another jurisdiction does not guarantee approval here.

The office lists the common reasons an applicant is called in: honor code violations, failing to disclose information on a law school or bar application, criminal charges or violations, terminations from employment and financial delinquencies. Notice of a hearing appears in the Application Portal. Interviews are arranged by Committee members and may be virtual or in person, while hearings are always in person, in the courtroom of the Supreme Court Building. The applicant may be represented by counsel, who must be named to the Office of Bar Admissions in writing before the hearing.

The applicant may not be told the specific reason for an interview or hearing and should be ready to discuss everything disclosed in the application. A hearing can delay admission, and whether an applicant with a pending hearing may still sit for the exam is for the Supreme Court to decide under Rule 402(g). After a denial by the Committee and the Court, a new application with the filing fee may be filed two years from the date of the denial.

South Carolina paperwork rules: affidavits, good-standing certificates and copies

For applications filed after April 1, 2025, everything is uploaded through the Application Portal, and character affidavits must be signed and notarized, with digital and "s/" signatures rejected. For earlier applications, affidavits had to carry the affiant's wet signature on an originally notarized form. Certified copies are required for the documents listed on the office's UBE documentation page, and leaving them out can get the application rejected. A name change for the certificate cannot be recognized within 10 days of the swearing-in ceremony or after the oath.

South Carolina requires only one certificate of good standing, from the jurisdiction where the applicant primarily practices, issued within 90 days of its submission. A raised-seal certificate for a South Carolina lawyer costs $25 with $5 for each additional copy, delivered by mail and never by email or pickup. Regular Members who have never had an administrative or disciplinary sanction can instead generate an electronic certificate at no cost in the Attorney Information System. The office does not issue disciplinary history letters; those come from the Commission on Lawyer Conduct at (803) 734-2037.

An applicant who did not use the portal can request a copy of a bar application in writing with a $25 check or money order to the Clerk of the Supreme Court, stating the exam month and year and a mailing address; there is no pickup. Results are usually released in late April and late October, posted in the applicant's account and on the Supreme Court's website. Accommodation requests are due November 1 for February and April 1 for July, cannot be supplemented later unless the medical condition changes significantly, and extensions come only from the Supreme Court.

South Carolina's February 2026 results: 111 applicants at 266 or higher

The Supreme Court of South Carolina publishes the names of applicants who scored a scaled 266 or higher on each Uniform Bar Examination. Charleston School of Law's release on the February 2026 results says 111 applicants received a 266 or higher, of whom 33 were Charleston graduates, a 78.57% pass rate for its examinees. It says 21 of its 23 first-time applicants passed, 91.3%, and that Charleston topped both the first-time and overall rankings.

That is the school's own account of the Court's list. The Court's list itself gives names, not rates or counts by school.

Source: Charleston School of Law: Charleston Law tops state bar passage list again (February 2026 results) ↗

How South Carolina graduates did against the state's ABA-school rate, 2021 to 2023

Charleston School of Law's ABA report gives a jurisdiction breakdown for each graduating class. In South Carolina its graduates passed 83 of 131 (63.36%) in 2021, 81 of 108 (75.00%) in 2022 and 74 of 103 (71.84%) in 2023. The report sets each against the state pass rate for graduates of ABA-approved schools, which was 73.86% in 2021, 76.46% in 2022 and 77.54% in 2023.

So the state figure for ABA-school graduates rose 3.7 points in two years, and Charleston's gap to it narrowed from 10.50 points in 2021 to 1.46 in 2022, then widened to 5.70 in 2023. Across all jurisdictions its first-time rate was 59.42%, 63.86% and 65.63% for the three classes. The report also gives a two-year ultimate bar passage rate, meaning passage within two years of graduation, of 82.87% for the class of 2019, 78.50% for 2020 and 76.74% for 2021.

Source: Charleston School of Law: ABA bar passage report (2021 to 2023 graduates) ↗