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 32 badges in the 2024 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.
College Factual ranked BHSU as #1,505 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when BHSU held the #1,583 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
BHSU is also ranked #12 out of 13 schools in South Dakota.
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 520 and 580. Math scores were between 450 and 570.
With a student to faculty ratio of 17 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 58%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate is a sign of how many full-time students like a college or university well enough to come back for their sophomore year. At Black Hills State University this rate is 61%, which is a bit lower than the national average of 68%.
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 19%. That's 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 + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $14,108 | $14,928 | $16,947 | $18,637 | $19,151 |
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 60% of students took out student loans averaging $6,660 a year. That adds up to $26,640 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at BHSU is 8.6%. 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.
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/ |
| Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/BlackHillsState |
| Twitter: | http://www.twitter.com/BlackHillsState |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Business Administration & Management | 90 | $36,641 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 59 | $36,857 |
| General Psychology | 30 | $28,162 |
| General Biology | 20 | $25,935 |
| Community Organization & Advocacy | 20 | $29,934 |
| History | 20 | NA |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 17 | NA |
| Sociology | 15 | $29,825 |
| General English Literature | 15 | NA |
| Teacher Education Subject Specific | 14 | $37,943 |
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 2020-2021, 2,320 students took at least one online class at Black Hills State University. This is the same number of students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-2021 | 2,320 | 1,356 |
| 2019-2020 | 2,320 | 1,303 |
| 2018-2019 | 2,249 | 1,281 |
| 2017-2018 | 2,017 | 1,106 |
| 2016-2017 | 2,099 | 1,076 |
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.