2023 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Mechanical Engineering in South Dakota

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on ME Major in South Dakota” ranking is part of that endeavor.

In 2020-2021, 46,178 people earned their degree in mechanical engineering, making the major the 21st most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, mechanical engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $69,007 and had an average of $23,944 in loans still to pay off.

Across South Dakota, there were 144 mechanical engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $61,932 and $27,288 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 11 mechanical engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $60,795 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on ME Major in South Dakota” ranking analyzed 2 colleges that offered a degree in mechanical engineering. That schools that top this list have a program in mechanical engineering in which the largest percentage of students at the school are enrolled.

See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Mechanical Engineering Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on ME Major in South Dakota” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

We’ve created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on ME Major in South Dakota

The following schools top our list of the Best “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on ME Major in South Dakota”.

Top 2 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Mechanical Engineering in South Dakota

1

South Dakota State University
Brookings, South Dakota

#1 overall quality in South Dakota

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend South Dakota State University. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on ME Major in South Dakota list. South Dakota State is a fairly large public school situated in Brookings, South Dakota. It awarded 11 masters’s ME degrees in 2020-2021.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.7% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Full South Dakota State Mechanical Engineering Report

2

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Rapid City, South Dakota

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. The school came in at #2 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on ME Major in South Dakota. Rapid City, South Dakota is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The public school handed out masters’s ME degrees to 64 students in 2020-2021.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 3.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Mechanical Engineering Report

• Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Mechanical Engineering in the Plains States Region
• Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Mechanical Engineering

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Michel Villeneuve.