University School of the Lowcountry is a small independent school, grades 3-12, located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina with IRS 501 tax-exempt status. University School is located on the campus of Hibben United Methodist Church. USL is designed for high-achieving, curious, hard-working, nice, and empathetic students. The school has consistent exemplary performance on the 7th grade Duke TIP SAT and 8th grade PSAT programs. Charleston reporter Stratton Lawrence termed USL "A School With No Bullies" in a 2013 article.
Features
This school is known for its field trips, also known as LOTCs. University School Intermediate and Middle School students learn three global languages concurrently. Students exit poll during each election and make informed predictions about the results, and the Post and Courier featured the accurate prediction of Linda Page's victory in the 2013 Mount Pleasant mayoral election and the 2015 City of Charleston mayoral and Mount Pleasant town council elections right after polls closed. University School's quality of life survey and strong vs. weak mayor poll results also served to inform Page's agenda upon being elected. Post and Courier columnist Brian Hicks builds upon the results of a survey question in the 2015 exit poll about full vs. part-time mayor for Mount Pleasant. USL's individualized and advanced curriculum enables students to earn more high school credits than any other in the state. The average USL 8th grader finishes Middle School with 5 high school credits and as many as 10. A student needs 24 specific credits to graduate high school in South Carolina, and University School's program enables students to advance to a higher level and explore more on- and off-campus opportunities in high school because of the credits earned in Middle School.
Enrollment
There are 3 divisions and 9 grade levels, serving 70 students:
Head of School Jason Kreutner received the "Rookie of the Year" Headmaster Award in 2009 and the Dr. Charles S. Aimar Educational Leadership Award in 2013 from the South Carolina Independent School Association. In their first three years of competing, University School won the SCISA Middle School Math Meet in the 2013-2014 and 2015-2016 school years.
