South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Public · Moderately Selective · SD

Photo: Tony Webster (CC BY 2.0)

School data & stats

TypePublic

LocationSD · Midwest

SettingUrban

Undergrads2,071

Student:faculty12:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate24.1%

6-yr grad rate52.9%

Drop-out rate15.9%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$11k

Out-of-state tuition$15k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity18.2%

Gender diversity21.1%

International1.4%

Identity—

Overview

South Dakota Mines is a small, focused STEM institution in Rapid City, at the edge of the Black Hills — a public engineering and science school whose founding mission around regional mineral resources still echoes in a curriculum built almost entirely around engineering, geology, and the hard sciences. It functions like a technical institute rather than a comprehensive university, with essentially every student on an engineering-adjacent or science track.

Academics

Mining engineering, metallurgical engineering, and geological engineering are the school's historic signature programs, tracing back to its origins serving the Black Hills mining industry, and the paleontology program is unusually strong for a school this size — students and faculty pull real fossils from the badlands surrounding the region. Class sizes are small, research opportunities open early even to undergraduates, and the engineering curriculum across disciplines carries a reputation for rigor.

Campus & student life

The campus sits at the literal edge of the Black Hills, and an outdoors-oriented, practical student culture follows from that setting — hiking, climbing, and regional geology trips are part of campus life, not just a backdrop to it. The school is small enough that most students know each other across majors, and campus traditions lean toward the technical and the outdoorsy rather than a big-school social scene.

Getting in

Admission tends to reward demonstrated strength in math and science coursework and genuine interest in engineering or the physical sciences over a broad, activity-heavy application — this is a school that wants to see a student can handle a demanding technical curriculum.

After graduation

Placement into engineering, mining, and geoscience industry jobs is a defining strength, with strong ties to mining, energy, and engineering-consulting employers regionally and nationally; the alumni network is small but tight and industry-connected, particularly in extraction and geological fields.

Worth knowing

The paleontology program's access to real badlands fossil digs is a genuine distinctive feature, not a marketing line, and the historic mining-engineering identity gives Mines a real niche employer pipeline most engineering schools its size don't have.

sdsmt.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate79.9%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1140–1340 · ACT 24–30

Test policyoptional

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying