by our College Data Analytics Team
College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.
South Dakota State University was awarded 850 badges in the 2023 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is wildlife, fish and wildlands science and management.
South Dakota State landed the #263 spot in College Factual's 2023 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,241 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when South Dakota State held the #378 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
South Dakota State is also ranked #1 out of 13 schools in South Dakota.
With an acceptance rate of 89%, South Dakota State 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 4% of students accepted to South Dakota State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 500 and 630. Math scores were between 500 and 670.
Learn more about South Dakota State University admissions.
With a student to faculty ratio of 17 to 1, South Dakota 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.
In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at South Dakota State University is 80%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 81% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like South Dakota State University enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.
When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor's degree from South Dakota State have a four-year graduation rate of 36%. This is comparable to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at South Dakota State University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 9,976 undergraduates at South Dakota State with 7,788 being full-time and 2,188 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $14,171 | $14,846 | $18,826 | $20,393 | $20,110 |
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 South Dakota State, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At South Dakota State, approximately 65% of students took out student loans averaging $8,374 a year. That adds up to $33,496 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at South Dakota State is 2.7%. 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 South Dakota State University.
See which majors at South Dakota State University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of South Dakota State University.
Contact details for South Dakota State are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1004 Campanile Ave, Brookings, SD 57007-1898 |
| Phone: | 800-952-3541 |
| Website: | https://www.sdstate.edu/ |
| Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/SouthDakotaStateUniversity |
| Twitter: | http://twitter.com/sdstate |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing | 315 | $58,372 |
| Animal Science | 110 | $40,797 |
| General Biology | 91 | $27,268 |
| General Psychology | 81 | $28,661 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 69 | $60,229 |
| Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences | 64 | NA |
| Agricultural Economics & Business | 62 | $41,411 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 58 | $35,069 |
| Human Development & Family Studies | 56 | $30,640 |
| Business/Managerial Economics | 55 | 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.
In 2019-2020, 8,687 students took at least one online class at South Dakota State University. This is an increase from the 4,358 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-2020 | 8,687 | 2,028 |
| 2018-2019 | 4,358 | 1,535 |
| 2017-2018 | 4,562 | 1,570 |
| 2016-2017 | 4,602 | 1,576 |
| 2015-2016 | 4,317 | 1,472 |
Learn more about online learning at South Dakota 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.
