Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

South Dakota School of Mines graduates a handful of electrical engineering students each year who earn about $73,500—respectable for South Dakota, where they outperform the only other program in the state, but roughly $4,000 below the national median for this major. The $22,500 debt load is reasonable, translating to a 0.31 debt-to-earnings ratio that sets up manageable monthly payments. For a South Dakota student planning to stay in-state where living costs are lower, this works fine.

The catch is sample size: we're talking fewer than 30 graduates here, so these numbers could swing significantly year to year. The school's 85% admission rate and middling test scores suggest it's accessible rather than elite, which may explain why earnings lag behind top-tier engineering programs. Engineering salaries also vary dramatically by specialization and geography—a power systems engineer in Sioux Falls faces different market dynamics than a communications engineer heading to a coastal tech hub.

If your child wants to study engineering close to home with minimal debt, this delivers on that promise. Just recognize they're not getting the earning power of graduates from larger, more competitive programs. The real question is whether staying in South Dakota post-graduation aligns with their career goals, since the modest salary makes more sense in context of the state's cost of living.