Region Scholarship Awards Total $105 Million

Students in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties earned more than $105 million last year in scholarships, according to data recently released by the South Carolina Department of Education.

The three metro-Charleston counties ranked among the top 11 counties in the state, according to the figures.

Charleston students earned $48 million last year, which made their totals the seventh-highest in the state. Berkeley County ranked tenth with $30 million and Dorchester County ranked eleventh with $25.4 million.

South Carolina’s Class of 2011 was the first group to earn more than $960 million in college scholarships since the state began tracking the information nine years ago.

The scholarship totals came from an annual survey of South Carolina school districts, as well as public charter schools, the Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics in Hartsville and the Governor’s School for Arts and Humanities in Greenville.

Ninety percent of scholarships are academic and 10 percent are athletic, according to the state. All the metro-Charleston counties saw increases in scholarship awards over the last three years.