2022 Best Value Criminal Justice Schools for an Associate in South Dakota

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value Criminal Justice Schools for an Associate in South Dakota” ranking - to help you make that decision.

Criminal Justice & Corrections is one of the most popular majors in the nation, ranking 6th of all the majors we analyze. In 2019-2020, 113,581 degrees were awarded to students with this major. In 2017-2018, criminal justice and corrections graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $31,952 and had an average of $24,936 in loans still to pay off.

Across South Dakota, there were 208 criminal justice and corrections graduates with average earnings and debt of $31,283 and $27,581 respectively. At the associate degree level specifically, there were 73 criminal justice and corrections graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Criminal Justice Schools for an Associate in South Dakota” ranking, we looked at 4 colleges that offer a degree in criminal justice and corrections. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality criminal justice and corrections programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the criminal justice and corrections program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Best Value Criminal Justice Schools for an Associate in South Dakota” list to help you make the college decision.

To further help you make the college decision, we’ve developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Criminal Justice Schools for an Associate in South Dakota

The colleges and universities below are the best for south dakota associate degree criminal justice students.

Top 4 Best Value Associate Degree Colleges for Criminal Justice & Corrections in South Dakota

#1

Lake Area Technical Institute

Watertown, South Dakota

#1 in overall quality

$12,939 Average Net Price

$37,208 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Lake Area Technical Institute. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Criminal Justice Schools for an Associate in South Dakota. Watertown, South Dakota is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The public school handed out associates’s criminal justice degrees to 12 students in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at LATI, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota” ranking. It costs about $12,939 for south dakota associate degree criminal justice students per year to attend Lake Area Technical Institute.

Read full report on Criminal Justice & Corrections at LATI

#2

Southeast Technical College

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

#3 in overall quality

$14,633 Average Net Price

$38,289 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Southeast Technical College. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Criminal Justice Schools for an Associate in South Dakota. Southeast Tech is a public institution located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The school has a small population, and it awarded 14 associates’s degrees in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our south dakota associate degree criminal justice students list, Southeast Tech has also earned the #3 rank in our “Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Southeast Tech is $14,633 for South Dakota Associate Degree Criminal Justice students.

Read more about Criminal Justice & Corrections at Southeast Tech

#3

Western Dakota Technical Institute

Rapid City, South Dakota

#2 in overall quality

$14,388 Average Net Price

$39,729 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Western Dakota Technical Institute. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Criminal Justice Schools for an Associate in South Dakota. Western Dakota Tech is a small school located in Rapid City, South Dakota that handed out 30 associates’s criminal justice degrees in 2019-2020.

Western Dakota Tech also took the #2 spot in our “Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota” ranking. It costs about $14,388 for South Dakota Associate Degree Criminal Justice students per year to attend Western Dakota Technical Institute.

Full Western Dakota Tech Criminal Justice & Corrections Report

• Best Value Associate Degree Colleges for Criminal Justice & Corrections in the Plains States Region
• Best Value Associate Degree Colleges for Criminal Justice & Corrections

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

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees 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.

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