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Lake Area Technical Institute Data & Information Overview

440 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
8% Student Loan Default Rate
If you want to know more about Lake Area Technical Institute, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is Lake Area Technical Institute Ranked?

#297 Best Colleges in Nation
#3 Best Colleges in SD
Business, Management & Marketing Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Lake Area Technical Institute was awarded 440 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is business, management & marketing.

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Overall Quality

LATI is ranked #297 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when LATI held the #436 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

LATI is also ranked #3 out of 13 schools in South Dakota.

See all of the rankings for Lake Area Technical Institute.

Is It Hard to Get Into LATI?

Open Admissions Policy

Acceptance Rate

Since Lake Area Technical Institute has an open admissions policy, being accepted to the school isn't that hard. However, a full basic things - such as a high school diploma or equivalent - may be required. Also, go over your application to make sure it is complete before you submit it.

Learn more about Lake Area Technical Institute admissions.

Lake Area Technical Institute Faculty

17 to 1 Student to Faculty
72% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 17 to 1, Lake Area Technical Institute is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Lake Area Technical Institute is 72%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  72 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Lake Area Technical Institute

76% Freshmen Retention

Freshmen Retention Rate

Lake Area Technical Institute has a freshmen retention rate of 76%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  76 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Lake Area Technical Institute.

Lake Area Technical Institute Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,509 Full-Time Undergraduates
6.2% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
41.8% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 2,217 undergraduates at LATI with 1,509 being full-time and 708 being part-time.

How Much Does Lake Area Technical Institute Cost?

$13,301 Net Price
84% Take Out Loans
$25,052 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of LATI is $13,301. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for LATI

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$9,646 $10,622 $13,238 $15,439 $15,484

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of LATI, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At LATI, approximately 84% of students took out student loans averaging $6,263 a year. That adds up to $25,052 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at LATI is 8.0%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you'll still want to keep this in mind when taking out student loans.

Get more details about paying for Lake Area Technical Institute.

How Much Money Do LATI Graduates Make?

$40,787 Avg Salary of Grads
Average Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from LATI with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $40,787 in their early years. This is right on par with the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year. Also, graduates in your major field may make more.

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See which majors at Lake Area Technical Institute make the most money.

Location of Lake Area Technical Institute

South Dakota State
1,509 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Lake Area Technical Institute is a public institution located in Watertown, South Dakota. Watertown is a good match for students who enjoy small-town life.

Get more details about the location of Lake Area Technical Institute.

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Contact details for LATI are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1201 Arrow Avenue, Watertown, SD 57201-0730
Phone: 605-882-5284
Website: www.lakeareatech.edu/

Lake Area Technical Institute Majors

20 Majors With Completions
577 Undergraduate Degrees
Learn more about the majors offered at Lake Area Technical Institute along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at LATI

44% Take At Least One Class Online
24% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2020-2021, 958 students took at least one online class at Lake Area Technical Institute. This is a decrease from the 978 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 958 526
2019-2020 978 456
2018-2019 1,033 349
2017-2018 718 291
2016-2017 500 204

Learn more about online learning at Lake Area Technical Institute.

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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