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?

• The master's degree is the highest award offered at BHSU.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 57% of the faculty were full-time.

Black Hills State University Rankings

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at BHSU.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Value Outdoor Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#15	Best Value Curriculum & Instruction Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#23	Best Value Special Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#26	Best Value Teacher Education Grade Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#27	Best Value Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#28	Best Value Health & Physical Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#29	Best Value Teacher Education Subject Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#89	Best Value Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#132	Best Value Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards BHSU has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#10	Best Education Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#12	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#19	Best Education Colleges for Non-Traditional Students	College Factual
#24	Best Teacher Education Subject Specific Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#31	Best Value Colleges for Education	College Factual
#45	Best Value Colleges for Teacher Education Grade Specific	College Factual

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
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/BlackHillsState
Twitter:	http://www.twitter.com/BlackHillsState

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	required
High School Rank	required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	neither required nor recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	neither required nor recommended

How Hard Is It To Get Into BHSU?

Since BHSU has an acceptance rate of 87%, it is not too hard to gain acceptance into the school. Still, you need to be sure you complete your application in full and send in any other requested documents.

Approximately 37% of accepted students are men and 63% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 86%, and the acceptance rate for women is 88%.

Average Test Scores

About 2% 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 458 and 628. Math scores were between 435 and 588.

BHSU received ACT scores from 86% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 17 and 23. Math scores were between 17 and 24. Composite scores were between 18 and 24.

Can I Afford Black Hills State University?

The overall average net price of BHSU is $22,020. 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

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At BHSU, approximately 71% of students took out student loans averaging $7,063 a year. That adds up to $28,252 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at BHSU is 8.2%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you'll still want to keep this in mind when taking out student loans.

Black Hills State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 3,684 undergraduate students at BHSU, with 1,945 being full-time and 1,739 being part-time.

There are also 174 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 1,945 full-time undergraduates at BHSU, 36% are male and 64% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	15
Black or African American	27
Hispanic or Latino	108
White	1,555
International Students	43
Other Races/Ethnicities	197

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.

Online Learning at Black Hills State University

There are 2 bachelor’s degree and 5 master’s degree programs available online at BHSU. In 2017-2018, 2,017 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at BHSU has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 9th most popular in South Dakota for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2017-2018.

Online Growth Rankings of BHSU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Black Hills State University was 5.2%. This is the #1,656 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at BHSU regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of BHSU majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Education	8%
Teacher Education Grade Specific	13%
Teacher Education Subject Specific	8%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at BHSU ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at BHSU.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Sustainability Science	#10
Human Resource Management	#98
Curriculum & Instruction	#99
Teacher Education Subject Specific	#147
Multi / Interdisciplinary Studies	#154
Teacher Education Grade Specific	#198
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities	#370
Liberal Arts General Studies	#370
Education	#469

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

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
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	70	25	95
Business Administration & Management	0	1	76	4	81
General Biology	0	25	36	0	61
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	40	11	51
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	23	22	0	45
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	34	34
Health & Physical Education	0	0	33	0	33
Community Organization & Advocacy	0	3	25	0	28
General Psychology	0	0	23	0	23
Design & Applied Arts	5	0	14	0	19
Special Education	0	0	18	0	18
Communication & Media Studies	11	0	6	0	17
Sociology	8	0	6	0	14
Accounting	0	0	11	0	11
General English Literature	0	0	9	0	9
History	1	0	7	0	8
Chemistry	0	0	8	0	8
Outdoor Education	0	0	7	0	7
Political Science & Government	0	0	6	0	6
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	5	5
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	1	0	4	0	5
General Business/Commerce	3	0	0	0	3
Other Physical Science	0	0	3	0	3
Fine & Studio Arts	0	0	3	0	3
Genetics	0	0	0	2	2
Writing Studies	0	0	2	0	2
Romance Languages	0	0	2	0	2
Sustainability Science	0	0	0	2	2
General Social Sciences	0	0	2	0	2
Music	1	0	1	0	2
Public Relations & Advertising	0	0	1	0	1
Ethnic Studies	0	0	1	0	1
Mathematics	0	0	1	0	1
General Physical Sciences	0	0	1	0	1
Entrepreneurial Studies	0	0	0	0	0
Hospitality Management	0	0	0	0	0
General Sales & Marketing	0	0	0	0	0
Construction	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
Multicultural & Diversity Studies	0	0	0	0	0
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	30	52	438	83	603

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.