Lake Area Technical Institute Business Programs

Located in Watertown, South Dakota, Lake Area Technical Institute is a public institution. The location of LATI is a good match for students who are interested in living in a college town while they pursue their degree.

Lake Area Technical Institute Rankings

LATI landed the #92 spot in our 2023 ranking of best colleges. We analyzed 1,477 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.

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.

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#27	Best Business 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 LATI.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Most Popular Agricultural Economics Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Most Popular Finance & Financial Management Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Most Popular Marketing Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Agricultural Economics Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Value Finance & Financial Management Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Finance & Financial Management Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#16	Best Value Marketing Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#19	Best Marketing Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#2	Best Banking and Financial Support Services Schools	College Factual
#3	Best Finance & Financial Management Associate Degree Schools	College Factual
#6	Best Value Colleges for Business, Management & Marketing	College Factual
#8	Best Marketing Associate Degree Schools	College Factual
#190	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#247	Best Schools	Course Advisor

Where Is Lake Area Technical Institute?

Contact details for LATI are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	1201 Arrow Avenue, Watertown, SD 57201-0730
Phone:	605-882-5284
Website:	www.lakeareatech.edu

How Do I Get Into LATI?

You can apply to LATI online at: www.lakeareatech.edu/

Since Lake Area Technical Institute has an open admissions policy, you should not have any trouble getting into the school as long as you have a high school diploma or the equivalent.

Can I Afford Lake Area Technical Institute?

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At LATI, approximately 87% of students took out student loans averaging $6,065 a year. That adds up to $24,260 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at LATI is 8.0%. 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.

Lake Area Technical Institute Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 2,217 undergraduate students at LATI, with 1,509 being full-time and 708 being part-time.

Gender Diversity

Of the 1,509 full-time undergraduates at LATI, 58% are male and 42% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Lake Area Technical Institute students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	11
Black or African American	15
Hispanic or Latino	21
White	1,345
International Students	6
Other Races/Ethnicities	111

Over 6 countries are represented at LATI. The most popular countries sending students to the school are Paraguay, South Korea, and Bangladesh.

Online Learning at Lake Area Technical Institute

In 2019-2020, 978 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

Online Growth Rankings of LATI

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Lake Area Technical Institute was 5,098.3%. This is the #22 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at LATI regardless of major.

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

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Agricultural Economics & Business	#1
Agricultural Business	#1
Finance & Financial Management	#1
Banking and Financial Support Services	#1
Marketing	#1
Marketing/Marketing Management, General	#1

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%.

Lake Area Technical Institute Business Concentrations

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

Major	Basic Certificate	Associate’s	TOTAL
Agricultural Business	2	112	114
Marketing/Marketing Management, General	10	49	59
Banking and Financial Support Services	6	29	35
TOTAL	18	190	208

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

More about our data sources and methodologies.