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Northern State University Data & Information Overview

13 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
78% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about Northern State University, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is Northern State University Ranked?

#1,285 Best Colleges in Nation
#10 Best Colleges in SD
General Biology Highest Ranked Major

2025 Rankings

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.

Northern State University was awarded 13 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general biology.

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Overall Quality

NSU landed the #1,285 spot in College Factual's 2025 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,152 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking.

NSU is also ranked #10 out of 13 schools in South Dakota.

See all of the rankings for Northern State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into NSU?

78% Acceptance Rate
58% Of Accepted Are Women
3% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Northern State University has an acceptance rate of 78%, which makes it somewhat selective. Make sure it's not the only school you apply to, even if it's your school of choice. Whether you get in or not will largely depend on how you compare to other applicants.

Average Test Scores

About 3% of students accepted to NSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 410 and 580. Math scores were between 390 and 570.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Northern State University  ( 410 to 580 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Northern State University  ( 390 to 570 )
200
800
NSU received ACT scores from 82% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 18 and 24.

ACT Composite Scores for Northern State University  ( 18 to 24 )
1
36

Learn more about Northern State University admissions.

Northern State University Faculty

16 to 1 Student to Faculty
97% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 16 to 1, Northern 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.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

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 Northern State University is 97%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  97 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Northern State University

74% Freshmen Retention
29% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Northern State University has a freshmen retention rate of 74%. 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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  74 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor's degree with four years. At NSU this rate is 29%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  29 out of 100
0
100

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

Northern State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,149 Full-Time Undergraduates
14.4% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
56.9% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 2,968 undergraduates at NSU with 1,149 being full-time and 1,819 being part-time.

How Much Does Northern State University Cost?

$17,523 Net Price
61% Take Out Loans
$28,152 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of NSU is $17,523. 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 NSU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$13,927 $14,632 $17,815 $19,885 $20,081

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 NSU, 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 NSU, approximately 61% of students took out student loans averaging $7,038 a year. That adds up to $28,152 over four years for those students.

Get more details about paying for Northern State University.

How Much Money Do NSU Graduates Make?

$47,618 Avg Salary of Grads
Average Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from NSU with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $47,618 in their early years. This is good news for future NSU graduates since it is 3% more than the average college graduate's salary of $49,219 per year.

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See which majors at Northern State University make the most money.

Location of Northern State University

South Dakota State
1,149 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Located in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Northern State University is a public institution. The location of NSU is a good match for students who are interested in living in a college town while they pursue their degree.

Get more details about the location of Northern State University.

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Contact details for NSU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1200 S Jay St, Aberdeen, SD 57401-7198
Phone: 605-626-3011
Website: www.northern.edu/

Northern State University Majors

42 Majors With Completions
770 Undergraduate Degrees
770 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 42 majors graduated from Northern State University. Of these students, 770 received undergraduate degrees and 770 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
Teacher Education Subject Specific 41 NA
General Biology 37 NA
Teacher Education Grade Specific 34 $46,042
Health & Physical Education 33 $40,123
Business Administration & Management 29 $43,667
Liberal Arts General Studies 25 NA
Finance & Financial Management 23 $47,781
Accounting 20 $51,239
Special Education 19 NA
Educational Administration 11 NA

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

Online Learning at NSU

63% Take At Least One Class Online
44% Take All Classes Online

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 2022-2023, 2,099 students took at least one online class at Northern State University. This is an increase from the 2,056 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2022-2023 2,099 1,475
2021-2022 2,056 1,439
2020-2021 2,349 1,545
2018-2019 1,918 1,448

Learn more about online learning at Northern State University.

If you’re considering Northern State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against NSU? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

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.

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