Accounting is of the hottest associate degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #13 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Accounting Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 68 associate degrees in accounting during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Accounting School for Your Associate Degree
Your choice of accounting for getting your associate degree school matters. Important measures of a quality accounting program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of associate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their associate degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on accounting students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other accounting students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for accounting to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized accounting related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for accounting students working on their associate degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Accounting Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Accounting in South Dakota
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for accounting students seeking a an associate degree.
Top South Dakota Schools for an Associate in Accounting
Southeast Technical College is one of the finest schools in the country for getting an associate degree in accounting. Located in the rural area of Sioux Falls, Southeast Tech is a public college with a small student population.
Associate recipients from the accounting program at Southeast Technical College make $3,362 above the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Mitchell Technical College is a wonderful decision for students interested in an associate degree in accounting. Mitchell Tech is a small public college located in the rural area of Mitchell.
Those accounting students who get their associate degree from Mitchell Technical College make $2,465 more than the average accounting student.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).