University of South Dakota · South Dakota

University of South Dakota scholarships and merit aid

Strong merit options for high-achieving students across journalism, STEM, and leadership.

Verified Jul 20262 months ago

The short answer

Is University of South Dakota worth a closer look?

University of South Dakota is worth checking if your student has strong grades or scores. We found 3 published awards, and one is based on those numbers.

Merit tiers31 based on grades or scores

Research checkedJul 2026By our research team

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Checking merit aid at University of South Dakota

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Published scholarships

These amounts and requirements come from the school’s own published pages. Open an award to see who qualifies and how to keep it.

Amount not published

Rawlins Scholarships

Apply separatelyCan continue

See who qualifies

How to keep it

Maintain 3.5 GPA

Source

Amount not published

Coyote Beginnings Commitment Program

Based on grades or scoresCan continue

Source

Full tuition

Walter A Lucy Yoshiko Buhler Scholarship

Apply separatelyCan continue

See who qualifies

How to keep it

Maintain 3.5 GPA

Source

See what could change an award

Rules that could change the answer

These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from University of South Dakota's published information.

Renewal ruleRawlins Scholarships: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Maintain 3.5 GPA A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

See costs and school data

Who this school may work for

Students with strong academic records who are interested in journalism, medical biology, or public service will find dedicated scholarship pathways at USD.

Published yearly cost: Approximately $26,870 for 2026-2027. Source

Cost and graduation facts

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

Average annual net price by family income at University of South Dakota, academic year 2021-22 — in-state, Title-IV aid recipients only
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$14,921
$30,001–$48,000	$15,942
$48,001–$75,000	$18,540
$75,001–$110,000	$21,202
$110,001+	$22,193
All income levels (average)	$19,858

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees (in-state), AY 2022-23: $9,432
Published tuition & fees (out-of-state), AY 2022-23: $12,942
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $19,858

That works out to roughly a 19% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $24,422 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

University of South Dakota 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: 60%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 79%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $23,592 (~$250/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $51,926
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 25%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 60%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not University of South Dakota'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 University of South Dakota'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.

See other scholarships and cost examples

Other University of South Dakota scholarships worth checking

These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.

Presidential Alumni Scholarship

AmountFull tuitionEligibilityThe Presidential Alumni Scholarship requires participation in the USD Honors Program, a 3.5 cumulative GPA, and completion of 30 credit hours per year; it is valued at in-state direct costs and general fees.

Source

George S Mickelson Scholarship

AmountFull tuitionEligibilityThe George S. Mickelson Scholarship requires participation in the USD Honors Program, a 3.5 cumulative GPA, and completion of 30 credit hours per year; it is valued at in-state direct costs and general fees and includes prorated double occupancy housing and a standard meal plan.

Source

See sources and other schools

How University of South Dakota compares

665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
University of South Dakota is one of them. The cohort minority (84 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.

Sources used on this page

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

Cost of attendanceUniversity of South Dakota cost-of-attendance worksheet
Merit tiersRawlins Scholarships

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Keep exploring University of South Dakota merit aid

University of South Dakota four-year renewal rules. GPA floors, credit-hour pace, and the renewal cliffs that knock awards out by sophomore year.