by our College Data Analytics TeamIn its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.
Black Hills State University was awarded 13 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is teacher education grade specific.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
According to College Factual's 2025 analysis, BHSU is ranked #1,615 out of 2,152 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality.
Out of the 13 colleges in South Dakota, BHSU is ranked at #11.
With an acceptance rate of 97%, BHSU has a fairly liberal admissions policy. However, don't just assume you'll get in! Put together a good application and make sure you include all requested documents and materials.
About 6% of students accepted to BHSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 485 and 495. Math scores were between 485 and 590.
With a student to faculty ratio of 18 to 1, Black Hills State University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.
When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at Black Hills State University is 63%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at Black Hills State University is 71%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full time students who obtain their bachelor's degree in four years or less. This rate is 20% for first-time, full-time students at BHSU, which is lower than the national rate of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Black Hills State University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,413 undergraduates at BHSU with 1,794 being full-time and 1,619 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $13,375 | $14,864 | $17,233 | $18,935 | $19,635 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of BHSU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At BHSU, approximately 61% of students took out student loans averaging $6,930 a year. That adds up to $27,720 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at BHSU is 1.0%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.
Get more details about paying for Black Hills State University.
See which majors at Black Hills State University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Black Hills State University.
Contact details for BHSU are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1200 University St, Spearfish, SD 57799-9500 |
| Phone: | 800-255-2478 |
| Website: | www.bhsu.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Business Administration & Management | 87 | $45,682 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 77 | $47,978 |
| General Biology | 45 | $33,518 |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 39 | NA |
| Teacher Education Subject Specific | 27 | $47,494 |
| General Psychology | 26 | $35,996 |
| Communication & Media Studies | 23 | NA |
| Health & Physical Education | 20 | $34,142 |
| History | 19 | NA |
| General English Literature | 18 | NA |
Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
In 2022-2023, 2,228 students took at least one online class at Black Hills State University. This is a decrease from the 2,320 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 2,228 | 1,332 |
| 2021-2022 | 2,320 | 1,356 |
| 2020-2021 | 2,320 | 1,303 |
| 2018-2019 | 2,017 | 1,106 |
Learn more about online learning at Black Hills State University.
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.