Black Hills State University Overview

Located in Spearfish, South Dakota, Black Hills State University is a public institution. Spearfish is a great place for students who enjoy small town life.

What Is Black Hills State University Known For?

• Students at BHSU have an easier time paying back their loans. The school's student loan default rate is only 0%, compared to the national rate of 10.1%.
• The master's degree is the highest award offered at BHSU.
• During a recent academic cycle, 63% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, BHSU bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $46,674 a year. That's about 14% more than their peers at other schools.

Where Is Black Hills State University?

Contact details for BHSU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	1200 University St, Spearfish, SD 57799-9500
Phone:	800-255-2478
Website:	www.bhsu.edu

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How Do I Get Into BHSU?

You can apply to BHSU online at: https://apply.sdbor.edu/login.cfm?inst=bhsu

Admission Requirements for BHSU

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	1
High School Rank	1
High School Transcript	1
College Prep Program	1
Recommendations	3
SAT or ACT Scores	5
TOEFL	3

How Hard Is It To Get Into BHSU?

BHSU has the high acceptance rate of 97%, which means it is fairly easy to gain admittance as long as you submit a complete application with requested materials.

Approximately 32% of accepted students are men and 68% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 97%, and the acceptance rate for women is 97%.

Average Test Scores

About 6% of students accepted to BHSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 485 and 495. Math scores were between 485 and 590.

BHSU received ACT scores from 69% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 16 and 23. Math scores were between 17 and 0. Composite scores were between 18 and 24.

Can I Afford Black Hills State University?

The overall average net price of BHSU is $21,718. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At BHSU, approximately 61% of students took out student loans averaging $6,930 a year. That adds up to $27,720 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at BHSU is 0.1%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

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Black Hills State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 3,413 undergraduate students at BHSU, with 1,794 being full-time and 1,619 being part-time.

There are also 195 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 1,794 full-time undergraduates at BHSU, 35% are male and 65% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Black Hills State University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	13
Black or African American	16
Hispanic or Latino	100
White	1,500
International Students	30
Other Races/Ethnicities	135

Geographic Diversity

South Dakota students aren't the only ones who study at Black Hills State University. At this time, 19 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 32 countries are represented at BHSU. The most popular countries sending students to the school are South Korea, Japan, and Nigeria.

Black Hills State University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Basic Certificate	Associate’s	Bachelor’s	Master’s	TOTAL
Business Administration & Management	0	5	82	6	93
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	41	17	58
General Biology	0	21	27	0	48
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	14	12	26
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	16	10	0	26
Health & Physical Education	0	0	26	0	26
Community Organization & Advocacy	0	4	21	0	25
General Psychology	0	0	20	0	20
Sociology	9	0	9	0	18
General English Literature	0	0	16	0	16
Communication & Media Studies	6	0	9	0	15
History	0	0	14	0	14
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	4	0	10	0	14
Outdoor Education	2	0	10	0	12
Human Resource Management	3	0	0	7	10
Special Education	0	0	6	3	9
Political Science & Government	1	0	8	0	9
General Business/Commerce	8	0	0	0	8
Mathematics	0	0	8	0	8
Design & Applied Arts	2	0	6	0	8
Chemistry	0	0	6	0	6
Genetics	0	0	0	5	5
Accounting	1	0	4	0	5
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	5	5
Writing Studies	0	0	5	0	5
Sustainability Science	0	0	0	5	5
Other Physical Science	0	0	5	0	5
Music	0	0	4	0	4
Entrepreneurial Studies	3	0	0	0	3
Public Relations & Advertising	0	0	3	0	3
Ethnic Studies	0	0	3	0	3
Multicultural & Diversity Studies	3	0	0	0	3
Hospitality Management	0	2	0	0	2
Fine & Studio Arts	0	0	2	0	2
International Studies	1	0	0	0	1
General Social Sciences	0	0	1	0	1
General Sales & Marketing	0	0	0	0	0
Teaching Assistants	0	0	0	0	0
Drafting & Design Engineering Technology	0	0	0	0	0
Industrial Production Technology	0	0	0	0	0
Romance Languages	0	0	0	0	0
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies	0	0	0	0	0
General Physical Sciences	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	43	48	370	60	521

References

*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.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Virginia State Parks staff under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.