University of South Carolina’s Horseshoe The estimated number of entering freshmen at the Columbia campus of the University of South Carolina is 4,400, the largest number ever. And including for the largest number of freshmen ever, the Barnes & Noble bookstore at the Russell House has prepackaged 6,825 books for students to pick up.

Practically all the freshmen are required to live on campus, and they combine with upper classmen to bring the on–campus undergraduate population to 6,853. Moving that many students in a 48–hour period can look like all of Camden on the move, or all of Fountain Inn or all of Little River. The students are moving into 4,417 rooms in 23 residence halls and another 20 homes in the Greek Village.

Bringing the brightest among the bright, the freshman class counts 70 high school valedictorians coming onto campus. Another estimate of the elite includes the 339 expected to enter the South Carolina Honors College, 290 of which will be living in the Honors Residence. And there will be 482 freshmen entering the Capstone Honors Program, adding another 392 to the Capstone Scholars Living Learning Community.

Among its undergraduates USC will have 2,404 living in the 15 special living– and–learning communities on campus. These communities range from the Carolina Global Community to Magellan Explorers and to Engineering and Computing.

An on–campus population of 450 graduate students will add to the undergraduates to bring the resident total over 7,300.

The freshmen class is composed of 55 percent females, 45 percent males, a national trend. Male and female, there are 135 student athletes in the freshman class.

For the nine days of welcome week, the campus plans on 116 events sponsored by 42 departments.

In University 101, more than 3,500 freshmen have registered in 160 sections to take the course designed to help students successfully make the transition to college. The number of parents registered for the university’s Parents Association: 11,100.

Expect more of the same. Last year the Gamecock Park Chick–fil–A in the Russell House sold more than 96,000 sandwiches. Among the 27 on–campus dining units, 4.25 million meals are served annually.

Out–of–the–sandwich chicken fingers consumed should total 45,200 pounds on campus.

On–campus Pandini’s and Pizza Hut combine for 69,000 in pizza sales for the year.

Einstein’s bagels were a hit last year, selling 51,000 on campus—their first—so a second shop has been set up in the humanities office building.

During the academic year, expect another 96,000 meals to be prepared each week at the Russell House University Union.

Out of all that food served on campus, about 25 percent is South Carolina produce.

Mail delivery on campus is high–volume. The average number of first–class pieces of mail the university’s postal services will handle each month with the return of students is 146,045. This is nearly double the summer volume. All year, the full 12 months, 55,000 parcels are delivered at the Student Mail Center.

The estimated number of feet of cable used to make the campus wireless is 470,000, which is also about 90 miles. Across campus among 138 buildings there are 2,877 wireless access points.

Last year 856 students studied abroad among 46 foreign countries, taking advantage of $388,532 in study–abroad scholarships.

The student campus

newspaper, The Daily Gamecock,

delivers 12,000 copies on campus each weekday.

The number of fraternity and sorority members on campus totals 3,800 among 36 fraternities and sororities, all contained among 20 houses in the Greek Village. The Greeks raise about $600,000 in charity every year.

There are about 4,000 trees on campus in 75 varieties.

The Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library behind the Thomas Cooper Library moved 120,000 books onto its shelves over the summer.