Black Hills State University Business Programs

Black Hills State University is a public institution located in Spearfish, South Dakota. Spearfish is a good match for students who enjoy small-town life.

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
#28	Best Value Public Relations & Advertising Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#125	Best Value Accounting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#163	Best Value Business Administration & Management 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
#2	Best Tourism and Travel Services Management Associate Degree Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#62	Best Business Administration & Management Associate Degree Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#102	Best Business, Management & Marketing Associate Degree Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#136	Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for General Business Administration and Management	College Factual
#149	Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Business Administration & Management	College Factual
#183	Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Business, Management & Marketing	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	considered but not required
TOEFL	neither required nor recommended

How Hard Is It To Get Into BHSU?

With an acceptance rate of 97%, BHSU is fairly easy to get into, but you must be sure to submit the required materials.

Approximately 33% of accepted students are men and 67% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 98%, and the acceptance rate for women is 97%.

Average Test Scores

About 10% 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 555 and 615. Math scores were between 483 and 588.

BHSU received ACT scores from 78% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 16 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 $21,718. 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

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At BHSU, approximately 65% of students took out student loans averaging $6,878 a year. That adds up to $27,512 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at BHSU is 8.6%. 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 3,413 undergraduate students at BHSU, with 1,794 being full-time and 1,619 being part-time.

There are also 195 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 1,794 full-time undergraduates at BHSU, 35% are male and 65% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	13
Black or African American	16
Hispanic or Latino	100
White	1,500
International Students	30
Other Races/Ethnicities	135

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

In 2019-2020, 2,320 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 5th 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 BHSU

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Black Hills State University was $8,672 for in-state students. Out-of-state students paid $11,742. The following table shows how BHSU 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
Organizational Behavior Studies	#4	#7
Other Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication	#4	#1
Public Relations & Advertising	#16	#1
Human Resource Management	#34	#15

Online Growth Rankings of BHSU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Black Hills State University was 7.8%. This is the #1,303 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at BHSU regardless of major.

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
Organizational Behavior Studies	#42
Human Resource Management	#247

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 Business Concentrations

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

Major	Basic Certificate	Associate’s	Bachelor’s	Master’s	TOTAL
General Business Administration and Management	0	11	90	5	106
Organizational Behavior Studies	0	0	0	13	13
Accounting	0	0	10	0	10
General Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration	8	0	0	0	8
General Business/Commerce	4	0	0	0	4
Other Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication	0	0	3	0	3
Tourism and Travel Services Management	0	2	0	0	2
Entrepreneurship	0	0	0	0	0
General Sales, Distribution, and Marketing Operations	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	12	13	103	18	146

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.