“South Dakota's Catholic Benedictine university — small, residential, and built around hands-on programs in nursing, education, and business.”
Mount Marty University is South Dakota's only Catholic, Benedictine university — a small residential institution of roughly 1,100 undergraduates set on an 80-acre bluff above the Missouri River in Yankton. Founded in 1936 by Mother Jerome Schmitt and the Benedictine Sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery during the depths of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, the school began as Mount Marty Junior College for women, became a four-year coeducational college, and renamed itself Mount Marty University in 2020 to reflect its expanded graduate programs. The Benedictine values of community, hospitality, prayer, stewardship, and balance still shape daily life: students share the bluff with the Sacred Heart Monastery whose sisters helped found the school, and the campus chapel and Benedict's Cafe sit at the literal center of student life. Academically, Mount Marty is built around a small set of programs it does very well rather than a sprawling research portfolio. Nursing is the flagship — the university offers a direct pathway from undergraduate nursing into a Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice, one of the more distinctive credentials at any school its size. Education, business administration, accounting, criminal justice, biology, and exercise science / kinesiology round out the most popular majors, and faculty advise students one-on-one from freshman year through internships and clinical placements. The university also runs satellite locations in Watertown and Sioux Falls for working adults and accelerated nursing students. Life at Mount Marty is residential and tight-knit: four residence halls, a student center, a performing arts auditorium, an athletic arena, and 22 NAIA varsity sports as a member of the Great Plains Athletic Conference. International enrollment is small but real — most international students arrive through athletics or the nursing pathway, and the campus's quiet, low-cost Yankton setting (population ~14,000, two hours from Sioux Falls and Sioux City airports) is a deliberate trade-off for students who want a calmer, more affordable American college experience than a large city offers.
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 SourceRegular Decision (Domestic)
Rolling admission; applications accepted after this date as space allows.
International — Fall Enrollment
Recommended deadline to allow time for I-20 issuance and visa processing.
International — Spring Enrollment
Recommended deadline for January start.
The deep admissions playbook beyond the headline acceptance rate — round-by-round breakdowns, nationality data, requirements, and contact paths.
Tuition & Fees (All Students)
$34,600
/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.
Mount Marty's flagship division, offering a traditional BSN, an accelerated BSN, an RN-to-BSN bridge, an MSN, and a Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice (DNAP). Strong clinical placement network across South Dakota hospitals and a direct undergraduate-to-DNAP pathway is unusual at this size.
Undergraduate programs in business administration, accounting, marketing, management, and sport management, plus an MBA at the Sioux Falls and Watertown campuses. Small classes and required internships place students in regional banks, hospitals, and ag-business firms.
Teacher preparation across elementary, secondary, and special education, with state licensure pathways and a long pipeline into South Dakota and Nebraska school districts.
Biology, biotechnology, chemistry, exercise science, kinesiology, and psychology — strong feeder programs into Mount Marty's nursing and nurse anesthesia tracks as well as graduate health professions.
Liberal arts core in the Benedictine tradition: theology, philosophy, English, history, communication, criminal justice, and counseling. Criminal justice is one of the most enrolled majors outside nursing and business.
3 years
One of only a handful of nurse anesthesia doctorates in the upper Midwest, with direct admission available from the BSN. Graduates become Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), among the highest-paid advanced-practice nurses in the U.S.
4 years
Traditional and accelerated tracks with clinical rotations beginning early in the program. Strong NCLEX pass rates and a built-in pipeline into Mount Marty's own MSN and DNAP programs.
4 years
Hands-on program with internship requirements at police departments, courts, and correctional agencies across South Dakota and Nebraska — well-suited to students aiming at federal law enforcement or graduate study in law.
Where alumni go after graduation — top industries, grad-school continuation, and the qualitative outcomes story.
Sticker price (annual, out-of-state): $34,600
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.
