University of South Dakota Teaching Programs

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.

University of South Dakota Rankings

USD holds the #1 spot on the Best Colleges in South Dakota ranking.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#101	Most Popular Teaching Bachelor’s 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
#7	Best Value Curriculum & Instruction Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Value Special Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#22	Best Value Teacher Education Subject Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#24	Best Value Instructional Media Design Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#28	Best Value Teacher Education Grade Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#31	Most Popular Teacher Education Subject Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#50	Most Popular Educational Administration Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#56	Best Value Educational Administration Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#71	Best Educational Administration Master’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
#8	Best Value Colleges for Education	College Factual
#9	Best Value Colleges for Teacher Education Subject Specific	College Factual
#11	Best Value Colleges for Special Education	College Factual
#13	Best Value Colleges for Teacher Education Grade Specific	College Factual
#44	Best Education Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#70	Best Colleges for Education	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
Website:	www.usd.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/UniversityofSouthDakota
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/UniversitySD

How Do I Get Into USD?

You can apply to USD online at: apply.sdbor.edu/login.cfm

Admission Requirements for USD

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into USD?

Since USD 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 85%, and the acceptance rate for women is 88%.

Average Test Scores

About 3% 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 510 and 590. Math scores were between 500 and 640.

USD received ACT scores from 93% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 19 and 25. Math scores were between 18 and 25. Composite scores were between 20 and 25.

Can I Afford University of South Dakota?

The overall average net price of USD is $23,352. 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 70% of students took out student loans averaging $7,283 a year. That adds up to $29,132 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 7,475 undergraduate students at USD, with 4,899 being full-time and 2,576 being part-time.

There are also 2,445 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 4,899 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	59
Black or African American	151
Hispanic or Latino	196
White	4,083
International Students	122
Other Races/Ethnicities	288

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 6 bachelor’s degree and 10 master’s degree programs available online at USD. In 2017-2018, 4,627 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 6th 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 USD

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at University of South Dakota was 1,162.1%. This is the #35 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
Physical Education Teaching & Coaching	12%
Teacher Education Subject Specific	8%

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
Instructional Media Design	#2
Educational/Instructional Technology	#2
General Educational Leadership & Administration	#4
Educational Administration	#5

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 Teaching Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
General Educational Leadership & Administration	0	0	93	23	116
Physical Education Teaching & Coaching	90	0	26	0	116
Elementary Education	59	1	11	0	71
General Special Education	24	0	8	0	32
History Education	13	0	0	0	13
Secondary Education	0	0	10	0	10
Mathematics Education	7	0	0	0	7
Educational/Instructional Technology	0	0	4	0	4
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	3	3
Art Education	3	0	0	0	3
English & Language Arts Education	3	0	0	0	3
Music Education	2	0	0	0	2
Biology Education	1	0	0	0	1
Reading Teacher Education	0	1	0	0	1
Indian/Native American Education	0	0	0	0	0
Counselor Education/School Counseling & Guidance Services	0	0	0	0	0
Chemistry Education	0	0	0	0	0
Drama & Dance Education	0	0	0	0	0
Science Education	0	0	0	0	0
Social Science Teacher Education	0	0	0	0	0
Spanish Education	0	0	0	0	0
Speech Teacher Education	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	202	2	152	26	382

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.