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Best Value Nursing Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota

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2023 Best Value Nursing Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

4 Colleges
$6,346 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$57,601 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Nursing Associate Degree School for You

Nursing is the most popular major in South Dakota with 1,022 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021.

When it comes to higher education, there are a lot of options for nursing students. As online education oppotunities continue to grow, you're not restricted to just schools in your local area anymore. Even some of the 'big name' schools are offering online courses. Also, there are a number of trade schools with offerings that you might find attractive.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Nursing Degree Search has created the Best Value Nursing Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 4 schools in South Dakota to see which associate degree programs offered the best value experiences for nursing students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

This ranking is not just a list of inexpensive schools. We also consider each school's quality, since we believe a low-quality school may not be a 'bargain' at any price. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

For nationwide and regional rankings, we use out-of-state tuition and fees in our calculations. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

Best South Dakota Schools for Affordable Quality for an Associate in Nursing

Our 2023 rankings named Oglala Lakota College the best value school in South Dakota for nursing students working on their associate degree. Oglala Lakota College is a small public school located in the remote area of Kyle.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Oglala Lakota College are $2,684 a year. After completing their Associate Degree, nursing graduates from Oglala Lakota College carry an average student debtload of $11,529.

Oglala Lakota College also made our Best Nursing Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota list, coming in at #4.

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Out of the 4 schools in South Dakota that were part of this year’s ranking, Lake Area Technical Institute landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the town of Watertown, LATI is a public school with a small student population.

LATI undergraduate students pay an average of $6,718 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

LATI also took the #1 spot in our Best Nursing Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota rankings.

Full Nursing at Lake Area Technical Institute Report

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#3

Southeast Technical College

Sioux Falls, SD

The excellent associate degree programs at Southeast Technical College helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value nursing schools in South Dakota. Located in the rural area of Sioux Falls, Southeast Tech is a public college with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Southeast Tech are $7,650 per year. Nursing majors at Southeast Tech take out an average of $33,072 in student loans while working on their Associate Degree.

Southeast Tech not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #2 on our Best Nursing Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota list.

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Out of the 4 schools in South Dakota that were part of this year’s ranking, Western Dakota Technical Institute landed the # 4 spot on the list. Located in the rural area of Rapid City, Western Dakota Tech is a public college with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Western Dakota Tech are $8,332 a year.

Western Dakota Tech did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Nursing Associate Degree Schools in South Dakota list.

Full Nursing at Western Dakota Technical Institute Report

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Best Value Nursing Colleges in the Plains States Region

Explore all the Best Value Nursing Schools in the Plains States Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Minnesota 14,890
North Dakota 976
Nebraska 1,908
Kansas 2,633
Iowa 2,966
Missouri 6,840

Nursing Concentrations

Major Annual Graduates
Registered Nursing 266,651
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing 16,104
Nursing Administration 9,838
Nursing Practice 7,992
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing 5,092
Nursing Science 4,600
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing 2,287
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing 2,021
Nurse Anesthetist 1,936
Public Health/Community Nurse/Nursing 1,883
Critical Care Nursing 773
Geriatric Nurse/Nursing 563
School Nursing 553
Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery 509
Clinical Nurse Leader 444
Clinical Nurse Specialist 419
Perioperative/Operating Room and Surgical Nurse/Nursing 331
Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing 181
Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing 57
Emergency Room/Trauma Nursing 53
Palliative Care Nursing 14
Forensic Nursing 14

Related Major Annual Graduates
Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants 84,274

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 4 schools only.

  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to Aleksahgabrielle.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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