University of South Dakota Scholarship Calculator

Enter your LSAT and GPA to see where you stand against University of South Dakota's admitted class and the grant range it actually publishes.

University of South Dakota reports a median grant of $5,000 per year for students receiving financial aid, and 55% of its students receive aid, with 7% of aid recipients covering full tuition or more. The median award covers about 41% of annual tuition, so the school still costs roughly $7,076 per year in tuition after aid.

What three years would actually cost you

At University of South Dakota, three years of tuition, housing and fees cost $100,695 before aid. A grant of $590 to $10,000 a year would leave you paying between $70,695 and $98,925 over three years. The lower figure assumes the larger award applies every year, so treat it as a floor rather than a bill.

The net figure applies this school's median award to every year and every student, so it is a floor rather than a bill — it excludes students who receive nothing, tuition increases, and living costs beyond what this school publishes. See the full cost breakdown →

Is this school worth your score?

University of South Dakota sits in the 7th percentile of law schools by median LSAT but the 1st percentile by median grant, so it gives about what its selectivity would predict. Among the 164 schools with both figures reported, that is a gap of 6 percentile points.

Selectivity and generosity are two different things. A school can sit high on one and low on the other — and that gap is the part worth knowing before you decide where to apply.

The comparison set is the 164 schools that report an annual tuition figure and a median grant. Schools reporting tuition per credit hour are excluded because there is no annual aid figure to line up against. Percentiles are rank positions, not estimates.

Where this school sits against the extremes

The most and least generous schools relative to their own selectivity, for reference:

Conditional scholarships at University of South Dakota

University of South Dakota gave conditional scholarships to 1 students in 2024, and 100% kept the award after review. That figure comes from a small sample of 1 students, so treat it as indicative rather than reliable.

Conditional scholarships are awarded on need but have to be re-earned every year. If you drop below the GPA threshold, the award can be cut — this is the school's own reported figure, not an estimate. See the retention data for every school →

Is University of South Dakota keeping more conditional scholarships?

University of South Dakota reported conditional scholarships in 2022 and 2024, but with 1 students in 2022 and 1 students in 2023 and 1 students in 2024 the figures are too small a sample to show whether the school is keeping more or fewer of these awards.

One or more of these cohorts is too small to read a direction from — a percentage built on a handful of students swings wildly. University of South Dakota is excluded from the retention ranking for that reason.

Is University of South Dakota getting more competitive?

Applications to University of South Dakota rose from 374 for the 2015 entering class to 404 for 2025, while the class enrolled 83 students — so there were 4.9 applicants per place, against 4.3 in 2015. Between 2023 and 2025 that figure moved from 3.8 to 4.9, and competition for each place has tightened.

Applicants per place is applications divided by the number who actually enrolled. It moves with how selective the school is, not with how many offers it sends — a school can issue more offers without becoming harder to get into. The summary above judges the direction over the three most recent entering classes, not across the whole span: a single unusual year in the middle of eleven is not a trend.

How University of South Dakota compares to schools at the same level

These are the schools with the closest median LSAT to University of South Dakota's. The table sorts by median grant, because that is usually what the comparison turns on once the academic profile is close enough — and the three-year net cost column shows what each of those grants actually leaves you paying.

Applicants per place is applications divided by students who enrolled. The competition column compares the most recent three entering classes rather than the full span, because a single year in the middle of that span is not a trend. Conditional retention is the share of students who kept a need-based conditional scholarship after year one review.

What this school's numbers mean

University of South Dakota is in . It admits 62.6% of applicants, and 55% of its students receive financial aid.

The four tiers above come straight from the school's 509 disclosure. They matter because the same coverage figure can mean very different things — a school where most awards are half-tuition grants and one where most are full-tuition grants offer students something quite different.

Related pages

• University of South Dakota financial aid breakdown — coverage, award size, all four tiers and conditional outcomes
• University of South Dakota ABA 509 report — every figure from the disclosure, section by section
• University of South Dakota cost of attendance — three-year total cost, ranked against every school
• University of South Dakota admissions data — acceptance, LSAT, GPA, bar passage and class size
• All-school scholarship estimator — compare every ABA law school at once