“A small public university on the edge of the North Dakota Badlands, home to the Theodore Roosevelt Center and a tight-knit Blue Hawk community.”
Dickinson State University (DSU) is a small public regional university founded in 1918 and set on a 110-acre campus in Dickinson, North Dakota — a working energy-and-agriculture town on the western edge of the state, only 35 miles from Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the dramatic Badlands. With roughly 1,400 students, DSU has the feel of a true residential college: small classes (most under 25 students), professors who learn names rather than seat numbers, and a campus where Blue Hawk basketball games, rodeo, and student-organization events form a meaningful part of weekly life. Academically, DSU is best known for programs that connect directly to the regional economy of western North Dakota. Agriculture (with hands-on access to ranches and the surrounding Bakken oilfield region), Nursing (BSN and PN), Business and Entrepreneurship, and Teacher Education are the largest and most established schools, and DSU also offers natural sciences and a growing slate of online programs. The university is a designated Theodore Roosevelt institution: the Theodore Roosevelt Center, housed on campus, is building one of the world's most comprehensive digital archives of Roosevelt-related materials in partnership with Harvard University and the Library of Congress, with more than 64,000 items already online and a separate state-funded Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library project nearby. Student life is residential and community-oriented. DSU competes in the NAIA's North Star Athletic Association and Frontier Conference as the Blue Hawks (navy and gray), with strong rodeo, basketball, football, and track traditions. International students are a small but visible part of campus, supported by a dedicated Office of International Programs in Stoxen Library. Dickinson itself is a quiet, safe small city of about 25,000 people — a real Plains-state experience rather than a coastal college-town one — with notable affordability: as of 2025, DSU charges all U.S. residents (and even Manitoba and Saskatchewan students) the in-state tuition rate, making it one of the most affordable four-year public universities in the country.
Visa, OPT, H-1B alumni outcomes, and acceptance rates by country — sourced from FOIA, USCIS H-1B Hub, and DHS SEVIS.
Test Optional — You can submit scores if they help your case, but they're not required.
Official SourceFall (International)
International document deadline; final admissions cut-off is July 16.
Spring (International)
International document deadline; final admissions cut-off is December 1.
Domestic Rolling
Domestic freshmen applications are reviewed on a rolling basis; DSU encourages applying September–January for the following fall.
The deep admissions playbook beyond the headline acceptance rate — round-by-round breakdowns, nationality data, requirements, and contact paths.
Domestic
$7,770 – $9,960
/yr
Out-of-State / Intl
$9,960 – $12,000
/yr
Beyond the sticker price — every named scholarship, the financial aid policy, need-aware notes, and a personalized net-cost estimate.
How life on campus actually feels — clubs, sports, traditions, housing realities, and how the school integrates with its city.
DSU's largest professional school, anchoring programs in agriculture (agribusiness, ag education, equine studies), business administration, accounting, management, and entrepreneurship — with strong ties to North Dakota's farming, ranching, and Bakken energy economy.
Offers a Practical Nursing certificate, an Associate of Applied Science in Practical Nursing, and a 126-credit Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) preparing graduates for licensure and rural-healthcare careers across the Northern Plains.
Trains elementary and secondary teachers for North Dakota and surrounding states, with classroom-placement partnerships across western ND school districts and a graduate-level teaching pathway.
Houses the natural sciences (biology, chemistry, environmental science), social sciences and humanities, fine arts and communication. Home faculty for Theodore Roosevelt-era history and public-history programming through the TR Center.
4 years
Hands-on agriculture program leveraging DSU's rural Plains location: students work directly with regional ranches, agribusinesses, and the Bakken energy economy. Concentrations available in agribusiness, agricultural education, animal science, and equine studies.
4 years
126-credit BSN preparing graduates for NCLEX licensure and high-demand rural-healthcare nursing careers. Strong clinical pipeline into CHI St. Alexius Health Dickinson and the broader western North Dakota healthcare system.
4 years
DSU is the academic home of the Theodore Roosevelt Center and its 64,000-item digital library — a globally unique resource built in partnership with Harvard and the Library of Congress. History students get rare undergraduate access to primary-source archival research.
Where alumni go after graduation — top industries, grad-school continuation, and the qualitative outcomes story.
Sticker price (annual, out-of-state): $9,118
Net-cost estimate is US-resident-only — international applicants are typically excluded from need-based aid at most schools and should treat the sticker price as the planning baseline.
