by our College Data Analytics TeamFind out more about how Lake Area Technical College ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.
College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.
Lake Area Technical College was awarded 173 badges in the 2026 rankings.
College Factual ranked LATC/Lake Area Tech as #611 out of 3,449 colleges and universities in the country on its 2026 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 20% of all schools in the nation.
Within the state, LATC/Lake Area Tech holds the #6 spot on the Best Colleges in South Dakota ranking.
The student to faculty ratio at Lake Area Technical College is about average at 16 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.
Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.
The full-time faculty percentage at Lake Area Technical College is 76%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Lake Area Technical College has a freshmen retention rate of 83%. That’s a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It’s also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor’s degree is typically four years. This rate at LATC/Lake Area Tech for first-time, full-time students is 64%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Lake Area Technical College.
The current enrollment includes 1,710 undergraduates at LATC/Lake Area Tech.
Get more detailed information on the diversity at Lake Area Technical College.
The overall average net price of LATC/Lake Area Tech is $16,772. 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 LATC/Lake Area Tech
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,281 | $11,773 | $14,034 | $16,925 | $17,310 |
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 price for a school. For more information on the sticker price of LATC/Lake Area Tech, 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 LATC/Lake Area Tech, approximately 57% of students took out student loans averaging $5,870 a year. That adds up to $23,480 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 6.1%. 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 Lake Area Technical College.
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree from Lake Area Technical College make about $45,473 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is in the same neighborhood of the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year. However, certain majors may produce higher-paying graduates.
See which majors at Lake Area Technical College make the most money.
Lake Area Technical College is an public institution situated in Watertown, South Dakota. Watertown is a great place for students who enjoy small town life. Get more details about the location of Lake Area Technical College.
Contact information for Lake Area Technical College are listed below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1201 Arrow Ave, Watertown, SD 57201-0730 |
| Phone: | 6058825284 |
| Website: | www.lakeareatech.edu |
In the latest year of available data, students from 14 majors graduated from Lake Area Technical College. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.
| Most Popular Majors | Completions | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Disciplinary Studies | 847 | NA |
| Vehicle Maintenance & Repair | 159 | $41,649 |
| Nursing & Nursing Assistants | 94 | $35,901 |
| Agricultural Economics | 87 | $36,747 |
| Marketing | 66 | $29,474 |
| Precision Metal Working | 64 | $37,581 |
| Nursing | 47 | NA |
| Cosmetology | 35 | $18,226 |
| Allied Health Services | 30 | $32,677 |
| Ground Transportation | 29 | NA |
Online learning options are becoming more and more popular at American colleges and universities. Online classes are great for students who have busy schedules or for those who just want to study on their own time.
1,094 students took at least one online class at Lake Area Technical College.
Learn more about online learning at Lake Area Technical College.
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.