by our College Data Analytics Team
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.
University of South Dakota was awarded 128 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general psychology.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
USD landed the #601 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.
Out of the 13 colleges in South Dakota, USD is ranked at #7.
Because it has a high acceptance rate of 99%, some consider USD to be a safety school. But don't just assume that admittance is in the bag. Make sure to spend enough time on your application so that it is in tip-top shape.
About 3% of students accepted to USD submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 500 and 640. Math scores were between 520 and 660.
The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At University of South Dakota, this ratio is 14 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.
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 University of South Dakota is 68%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate of 82% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like University of South Dakota 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.
Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At USD the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 43%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at University of South Dakota.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 7,103 undergraduates at USD with 4,741 being full-time and 2,362 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $15,653 | $16,813 | $18,725 | $21,006 | $21,482 |
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 USD, 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 USD, approximately 60% of students took out student loans averaging $7,340 a year. That adds up to $29,360 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for University of South Dakota.
See which majors at University of South Dakota make the most money.
Get more details about the location of University of South Dakota.
Contact details for USD are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 414 E Clark St, Vermillion, SD 57069-2390 |
| Phone: | 605-658-6200 |
| Website: | https://www.usd.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Mental & Social Health Services | 166 | $41,191 |
| Nursing | 163 | $71,758 |
| Business Administration & Management | 159 | $47,107 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 111 | $43,790 |
| Health Sciences & Services | 94 | $44,109 |
| General Biology | 86 | $30,167 |
| Law | 85 | NA |
| Health & Physical Education | 82 | NA |
| Accounting | 81 | $57,234 |
| General Psychology | 77 | $31,696 |
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 2022-2023, 5,715 students took at least one online class at University of South Dakota. This is an increase from the 5,298 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 5,715 | 3,288 |
| 2021-2022 | 5,298 | 3,109 |
| 2020-2021 | 6,003 | 2,860 |
| 2018-2019 | 4,627 | 2,890 |
Learn more about online learning at University of South Dakota.
If you’re considering University of South Dakota, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against USD? 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!
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.