Black Hills State University Data & Information Overview

Find out more about how Black Hills State University ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below. Want to dig deeper into a particular stat? Just click on its tile and you'll be taked to a more in-depth page on the figure. In addition, you can use the links below to quickly jump to any section on this page.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning

How Well Is Black Hills State University Ranked?

2021 Rankings

In 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 17 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is education.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked BHSU as #1,318 out of 1,715 colleges and universities in the country on its 2021 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when BHSU held the #1,367 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

BHSU is also ranked #10 out of 11 schools in South Dakota.

See all of the rankings for Black Hills State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into BHSU?

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 87%, Black Hills State University is easier to get into than many other schools. But that doesn't mean you can slack off on your application. Make sure to treat this school like any other when submitting requested materials and documents.

Average Test Scores

About 2% 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 458 and 628. Math scores were between 435 and 588.

BHSU received ACT scores from 86% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 18 and 24.

Learn more about Black Hills State University admissions.

Black Hills State University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

At Black Hills State University, the student to faculty ratio is 20 to 1. Compared to the national average of 15 to 1, this is somewhat high. This could mean that class sizes may be larger than they are at other colleges or universities or that professors may be required to teach more classes.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

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 57%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Black Hills State University

Freshmen Retention Rate

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 69%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.

Graduation Rate

When we say that a student has graduated on time, we mean that they have finished their bachelor's degree within four years. The on-time graduation rate at BHSU is 16%. That's lower than the national rate of 33.3%

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Black Hills State University.

Average Overall Diversity at BHSU

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,947 undergraduates at BHSU with 2,195 being full-time and 1,752 being part-time.

BHSU Diversity Score

College Factual computes an overall diversity score for each college and university that takes gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and age into account. Schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest, and those that cater to just one or two student groups are ranked the lowest.

BHSU scored 54.09 out of 100 for overall diversity. This is about average when compared to other colleges and universities in the United States.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Black Hills State University.

How Much Does Black Hills State University Cost?

The overall average net price of BHSU is $16,073. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for BHSU

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$13,012	$13,401	$16,721	$18,522	$18,853

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.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At BHSU, approximately 71% of students took out student loans averaging $7,063 a year. That adds up to $28,252 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at BHSU is 8.2%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you'll still want to keep this in mind when taking out student loans.

Get more details about paying for Black Hills State University.

How Much Money Do BHSU Graduates Make?

Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from BHSU make around $35,900 per year during the early years of their employment. This is about 10% less that the average pay for college graduates overall. However, graduates with your major may make more.

See which majors at Black Hills State University make the most money.

Location of Black Hills State University

Black Hills State University is a public institution located in Spearfish, South Dakota. Spearfish is a great place for students who enjoy small town life.

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
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/BlackHillsState
Twitter:	http://www.twitter.com/BlackHillsState

Black Hills State University Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 43 majors graduated from Black Hills State University. Of these students, 490 received undergraduate degrees and 83 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors	Bachelor’s Degrees	Average Salary of Graduates
Business Administration & Management	76	$35,100
Teacher Education Grade Specific	70	$38,600
Teacher Education Subject Specific	40	$37,700
General Biology	36	NA
Health & Physical Education	33	$28,100
Community Organization & Advocacy	25	$29,000
General Psychology	23	$25,500
Liberal Arts General Studies	22	NA
Special Education	18	$38,600
Design & Applied Arts	14	NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Black Hills State University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at BHSU

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2017-2018, 2,017 students took at least one online class at Black Hills State University. This is a decrease from the 2,099 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	2,017	1,106
2016-2017	2,099	1,076
2015-2016	1,872	971
2014-2015	1,734	887
2013-2014	1,769	907

Learn more about online learning at Black Hills State University.

References

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Virginia State Parks staff under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.