Criminal Justice & Corrections is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #7 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in South Dakota ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 115 bachelor's degrees in criminal justice & corrections to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Criminal Justice & Corrections School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of criminal justice & corrections for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to criminal justice & corrections students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of criminal justice & corrections students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt criminal justice & corrections students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminal justice & corrections related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for criminal justice & corrections students working on their bachelor's degree.
The criminal justice school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in South Dakota.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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University of South Dakota is a good option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the town of Vermillion, USD is a public university with a medium-sized student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the criminal justice program earn an average of $40,402 for their early career.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections has to take a look at National American University - Rapid City. National American University - Rapid City is a small private for-profit university located in the city of Rapid City.
Bachelor's recipients from the criminal justice & corrections degree program at National American University - Rapid City get $3,045 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
It is difficult to beat University of Sioux Falls if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the medium-sized city of Sioux Falls, University of Sioux Falls is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the criminal justice program make about $38,858 in the first couple years of their career.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
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.
by our College Data Analytics Team
Your choice of criminal justice & corrections for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
