University of South Dakota Overview

University of South Dakota is a public institution situated in Vermillion, South Dakota. The surrounding location of Vermillion is ideal for students who enjoy the charms of a college town.

What Is University of South Dakota Known For?

• The student loan default rate at USD is 5%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at USD.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 64% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, USD bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $42,000 a year. That's about 3% more than their peers at other schools.

University of South Dakota 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.

USD has been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#66	Best Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Human Services Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#5	Best Design & Applied Arts Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Visual & Performing Arts Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#12	Best Public Administration Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#13	Best Public & Social Service Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#45	Best Liberal Arts General Studies Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#45	Best Liberal Arts & Humanities Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#51	Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#54	Best Law Enforcement & Firefighting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#59	Best Drama & Theater Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#1	Best Clinical/Medical Social Work Bachelor’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#2	Best Human Services Schools	College Factual
#2	Best General Human Services Schools	College Factual
#29	Best Public Administration Schools	College Factual
#49	Best Public Administration & Social Service Schools	College Factual
#164	Best Allied Health Professions Schools	College Factual

Where Is University of South Dakota?

Contact details for USD are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	414 E Clark St, Vermillion, SD 57069-2390
Phone:	605-658-6200
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/UniversityofSouthDakota
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/UniversitySD

How Do I Get Into USD?

You can apply to USD online at: www.usd.edu/admissions/apply

Admission Requirements for USD

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	considered but not required
High School Rank	considered but not required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	considered but not required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	considered but not required

How Hard Is It To Get Into USD?

USD has the high acceptance rate of 91%, which means it is fairly easy to gain admittance as long as you submit a complete application with requested materials.

Approximately 36% of accepted students are men and 64% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 89%, and the acceptance rate for women is 92%.

Average Test Scores

About 4% of students accepted to USD submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 500 and 620. Math scores were between 500 and 625.

USD received ACT scores from 91% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 18 and 25. Math scores were between 19 and 26. Composite scores were between 20 and 25.

Can I Afford University of South Dakota?

The overall average net price of USD is $23,220. 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 USD, approximately 64% of students took out student loans averaging $7,533 a year. That adds up to $30,132 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at USD is 4.8%. 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.

University of South Dakota Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 7,103 undergraduate students at USD, with 4,741 being full-time and 2,362 being part-time.

There are also 2,356 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 4,741 full-time undergraduates at USD, 37% are male and 63% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of University of South Dakota students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	61
Black or African American	141
Hispanic or Latino	193
White	3,974
International Students	94
Other Races/Ethnicities	278

Geographic Diversity

South Dakota students aren't the only ones who study at University of South Dakota. At this time, 37 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 63 countries are represented at USD. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and Nepal.

Online Learning at University of South Dakota

There are 3 bachelor’s degree and 2 master’s degree programs available online at USD. In 2019-2020, 6,003 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

This school is the 2nd most popular in South Dakota for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of USD

The following table shows how USD is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Human Services	#7	#4
Mental & Social Health Services	#22	#4
Accounting	#31	#13
Health Sciences & Services	#32	#4
Dental Support Services	#43	#10
Social Work	#43	#1
Teacher Education Subject Specific	#49	#13
Public Health	#67	#7
Public Administration	#67	#5
Health & Medical Administrative Services	#70	#22

Online Growth Rankings of USD

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at University of South Dakota was 1.0%. This is the #1,665 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at USD regardless of major.

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

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Design & Applied Arts	50%
Health Professions	6%
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities	10%
Liberal Arts General Studies	10%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at USD 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 USD.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Other Health Professions	#55
Design & Applied Arts	#83
Social Work	#145
Visual & Performing Arts	#182
Teacher Education Subject Specific	#389
Public Administration & Social Service	#475

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%.

University of South Dakota Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Basic Certificate	Associate’s	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Nursing	0	0	238	0	0	0	238
Business Administration & Management	3	0	71	2	64	0	140
Health & Physical Education	0	0	91	0	31	0	122
Educational Administration	0	0	0	0	95	17	112
Mental & Social Health Services	1	0	49	0	55	0	105
Health Sciences & Services	0	0	97	0	0	2	99
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	75	1	16	0	92
General Biology	0	0	72	0	15	3	90
Accounting	0	0	48	0	37	0	85
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	0	0	0	0	0	73	73
Communication & Media Studies	2	0	66	0	3	0	71
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	25	45	0	0	0	70
Medicine	0	0	0	0	0	69	69
General Psychology	0	0	56	0	5	8	69
Communication Sciences	0	0	25	0	25	5	55
Law	0	0	0	0	0	51	51
Criminal Justice & Corrections	0	0	49	0	0	0	49
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	47	0	0	0	47
Marketing	0	0	39	0	0	0	39
Human Services	0	0	0	0	39	0	39
Special Education	0	0	24	0	13	0	37
Public Administration	0	0	0	14	20	0	34
Finance & Financial Management	0	0	32	0	0	0	32
Dental Support Services	0	0	32	0	0	0	32
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	0	2	26	3	31
Political Science & Government	0	0	26	0	1	2	29
History	0	0	22	0	5	0	27
General English Literature	0	0	20	0	2	4	26
Allied Health Professions	0	0	0	0	25	0	25
Computer Information Systems	0	0	10	0	13	0	23
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	14	1	7	0	22
Public Health	0	0	0	0	22	0	22
Economics	0	0	21	0	0	0	21
Fine & Studio Arts	0	0	18	0	3	0	21
Bioethics/Medical Ethics	0	0	0	19	0	0	19
Chemistry	0	0	10	0	9	0	19
Music	0	0	6	0	12	0	18
Drama & Theater Arts	0	0	13	0	3	0	16
Romance Languages	0	0	13	0	0	0	13
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	0	0	13	0	0	0	13
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	0	13	0	0	0	13
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	0	0	9	9
International Studies	0	0	9	0	0	0	9
Anthropology	0	0	9	0	0	0	9
Human Resource Management	0	0	8	0	0	0	8
Sustainability Science	0	0	4	0	3	0	7
Physics	0	0	2	0	5	0	7
Instructional Media Design	0	0	0	0	5	0	5
Biomedical Engineering	0	0	0	0	3	2	5
Mathematics	0	0	4	0	1	0	5
Philosophy	0	0	5	0	0	0	5
Interdisciplinary Studies	0	0	0	0	4	0	4
Museum Studies	0	0	0	3	0	0	3
Geological & Earth Sciences	0	0	2	0	0	0	2
Materials Sciences	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
Sociology	0	0	2	0	0	0	2
Design & Applied Arts	0	2	0	0	0	0	2
Entrepreneurial Studies	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Ethnic Studies	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Germanic Languages	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Medical Science	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Biological & Biomedical Sciences (Other)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Management Information Systems	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Multilingual Education	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Student Counseling	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other Health Professions	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Applied Mathematics	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Biological & Physical Science	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Parks, Recreation & Leisure Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Physical Science Technicians	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Social Work	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	6	27	1,403	42	567	251	2,296

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 Ammodramus under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.