2023 Most Popular Colleges for Mechanical Engineering in South Dakota

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Most Well Attended 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.

This year’s “Most Well Attended ME Major in South Dakota” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have one of the most popular mechanical engineering programs in the United States.

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 “Most Well Attended ME Major in South Dakota” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

One of our other unique offerings is College Combat. This tool lets you build your own customized comparisons utilizing the factors that are most important to you. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Most Well Attended ME Major in South Dakota

The following schools top our list of the Best “Most Well Attended ME Major in South Dakota”.

Top 2 Most Popular Colleges for Mechanical Engineering in South Dakota

1

South Dakota State University
Brookings, South Dakota

#1 overall quality in South Dakota

$45,741 Average Early-Career Earnings

$25,549 Average Student Debt

Out of the 2 schools in the Most Well Attended ME Major in South Dakota that were part of this year’s ranking, South Dakota State University landed the #1 spot on the list. South Dakota State University is located in Brookings, South Dakota and, has a fairly large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 80 ’s ME degrees to qualified students.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 2.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full South Dakota State Mechanical Engineering Report

2

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

$64,929 Average Early-Career Earnings

$28,357 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Most Well Attended ME Major in South Dakota list. SD Mines is located in Rapid City, South Dakota and, has a small student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 64 ’s ME degrees to qualified students.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 3.7%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Mechanical Engineering at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

• Most Popular Colleges for Mechanical Engineering in the Plains States Region
• Most Popular 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.