South Dakota State University · South Dakota

South Dakota State Merit Aid

Verified Jul 202625 days ago· HX-AUTO

Merit tiers5See requirements

Last verifiedJul 2026Analyst HX-AUTO

Free Merit Check

See what South Dakota State's published rules mean for your student's numbers. Takes 30 seconds.

Checking merit aid at South Dakota State

Unweighted GPA

Test score

State

HS graduation year

We’ll email you this result and a few short merit-aid pointers. We store score ranges only, never your student’s name. Unsubscribe anytime. See our privacy policy.

The merit-aid verdict at South Dakota State

A university that sends students to compete for top national scholarships.

Who this school is for

Ambitious students with strong academic records who are looking for a university that supports competitive scholarship applications.

Tuition / cost of attendance: Approximately $25,196 for 2026-2027. Source

Federal cost and outcome data

Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at South Dakota State, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.

Average annual net price by family income at South Dakota State, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$14,266
$30,001–$48,000	$15,248
$48,001–$75,000	$18,073
$75,001–$110,000	$20,706
$110,001+	$21,886
All income levels (average)	$19,841

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23: $9,299
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23: $12,809
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $19,841

That works out to roughly a 19% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $24,636 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

South Dakota State is a public school; Scorecard's net price figure covers in-state, Title-IV-aid-recipient payers only — there is no comparable federal figure for out-of-state students.

Outcomes for students who enrolled here

Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort: 62%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 84%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $23,250 (~$246/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $55,070
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 21%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 55%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not South Dakota State's full student body.
Published tuition is the catalog sticker price for all students, not a Title IV-only figure.
Graduation rate reflects the entire first-time, full-time, degree-seeking cohort — not only students who received Title IV aid.
Retention rate reflects all first-time, full-time, bachelor's-seeking students — not only Title IV aid recipients.
Median debt reflects only completers who took out federal student loans — not South Dakota State's full graduating class, and not limited to first-time, full-time students.
Median earnings reflect Title IV aid recipients who entered college and were working (not enrolled) roughly a decade later — not necessarily the graduating cohort, and not a recent graduate's paycheck.
Pell grant and federal loan participation covers first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students only.
Net price blends need-based aid and merit aid together — it is not a merit-specific estimate. It shows what similar-income families actually paid on average after every kind of aid, not what a strong-stats student could win in merit dollars alone. Treat it as cost context, not a merit forecast — a MeritPlaybook models merit aid specifically for your student’s own stats, which this net-price figure cannot do.

None of this is current-year data — the U.S. Department of Education reports it on a delay, and different figures below come from different reporting years. Net price is an academic year 2021-22 figure. Published tuition reflects the 2022-23 academic year. Graduation rate reflects the Fall 2016 entering, full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking cohort; completion measured within 150% of normal time (~6 years for a bachelor's degree). IPEDS Graduation Rates component (C150_4). Retention reflects the Fall 2021 full-time, first-time, bachelor's-seeking cohort retained into the following fall. IPEDS Fall Enrollment component (RET_FT4). Median debt reflects the NSLDS FY2020 and FY2021 pooled completer cohorts (GRAD_DEBT_MDN, GRAD_DEBT_MDN10YR_SUPP). Median earnings reflect the Treasury-matched cohort entering college in AY2009-10 or AY2010-11, earnings measured 10 years later in calendar years 2020 and 2021, inflation-adjusted to 2022 dollars (MD_EARN_WNE_P10).

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard.

Institutional merit aid tiers

Every tier below is sourced to the school’s own published financial aid pages. Renewal terms apply only if the student maintains the stated GPA.

Up to $30,000

Harry S Truman Scholarship

Application

Source

Amount not published

Barry Goldwater Scholarship

Application

Source

Up to $250,000

Hertz Fellowship

Application

Source

Amount not published

Udall Foundation Scholarship

Application

Source

$70,000

Rhodes Scholarship

Application

Source

Lesser-known scholarships at South Dakota State

Named awards that don’t always surface on the main financial aid page. Each one has its own eligibility rules.

Schultz Werth Award

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Schultz-Werth Award is a competition recognizing scholarly achievements of undergraduate students.

Source

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against South Dakota State’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Compare with similar schools

University of South Dakota merit aid — South Dakota public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
BHSU merit aid — South Dakota public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
Northern State (NSU) merit aid — South Dakota public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
Augustana University merit aid — South Dakota private school — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.