It opened in 1824 as a small private college aimed at training physicians and has since established hospitals and medical facilities across the state.
With the exception of the American Civil War, the college has served continuously to the present, even when there was a total enrollment of two students.
In 1969, twelve African Americans were fired from the hospital, resulting in a two-month-long strike and protest that gathered as many as 10,000 participants, including influential leaders such as Coretta Scott King.
The college partners with the University of South Carolina and The Citadel to provide an M.D./master's in Public Health and M.D./master's of Business Administration, respectively.
Students also participate in a longitudinal curriculum that includes instruction in doctoring, physical examination and diagnosis, and biomedical ethics.
Members of the graduating class of 2020 were the first to receive degrees under the newly separated MUSC College of Pharmacy.
The School of Graduate Studies, formally organized in 1965, now offers a variety of programs including neuroscience, biostatistics, epidemiology, molecular and cellular biology, pathology and laboratory medicine, pharmacology, pharmaceutical sciences, microbiology and immunology, and environmental sciences.
In the 1840s the college also entered into agreements for clinical training opportunities at the Poorhouse, the Marine Hospital, and the local "dispensary."
The Medical College recognized the need for its own facilities to expand clinical teaching opportunities, as well as to serve as a major referral center in South Carolina for diagnosis and treatment of disease.
In 2012, it was the first hospital in South Carolina to perform the new LINX Reflux Management System treatment for patients with GERD.
[15] The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21[16][17] throughout the Carolinas.
[18] The hospital has a rooftop helipad[19] and is an ACS verified level I pediatric trauma center, the only one in South Carolina.
By this act it established MUSC as the state's only free standing academic health sciences center, and one of the few institutions of its kind in the nation.
Since 1972 South Carolina AHEC has influenced the education, supply, retention, and geographic distribution of health care professionals statewide, particularly in smaller, underserved communities.
South Carolina AHEC maintains partnerships between the university and communities across the state, as evidenced by more than 200 full-time faculty members and hundreds more part-time and consulting faculty who teach in South Carolina AHEC programs in virtually every county of the state.
The library has more than 200,000 bound volumes, approximately 12,600 E-journal subscriptions, and a vast array of online databases & knowledgebases.
Since 1985, nine new buildings have been constructed: East Wing and Children's Hospital (1986), Institute of Psychiatry (1988), North Tower (1993), Harper Student Center (1993), Hollings Cancer Center (1993), The Strom Thurmond Biomedical Research Center and the Gazes Cardiac Institute (1997) in cooperation with the VA Hospital, Charles P. Darby Children's Research Institute (2005), Ashley-Rutledge Parking Garage (2005), and Ashley River Tower (2008).
In addition there have been major renovation/addition projects including Storm Eye Institute expansion (1998), Rutledge Tower Ambulatory Care Facility renovation (1998), College of Health Professions Complex (2005), Hollings Cancer Center Tower expansion (2005), and Colcock Hall (2005–2006).
The growth of the campus has been made possible, at times, by the demolition of historic properties such as the c. 1820s Bennett Mill's overseer's house at 76 Barre Street, demolished in 1977 to make way for a parking lot.
This building began a new chapter in South Carolina as it created 78 labs and other facilities to improve biomedical research efforts.