Master's MFT Programs in South Dakota (2026)

How is this ranking of South Dakota MFT programs ordered?

The order of this ranking of South Dakota MFT programs is built end to end from what the programs themselves publish, because all one of them report outcomes. Three components make up the 100: results carry 60, publishing them at all carries 25, and the accreditor's own verdict on the program carries 15.

The distinction matters: a program scoring low for publishing nothing has not been judged on its teaching, because there is nothing to judge it on. No figure is estimated in its place. What has been marked is a disclosure obligation that comes with the accreditation, and the card says as much.

The methodology sets out the weights and the thresholds in full.

What do marriage and family therapists earn in South Dakota?

Marriage and family therapists in South Dakota earn a median of $44,870, against $66,940 nationally, on Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for May 2025. That is $22,070 below the national figure , and 44th highest of the 45 states that publish one. The range runs from about $37,060 at the tenth percentile to $53,420 at the ninetieth.

The state employs 80 of them, which is 0.42 times the national rate per head of population. That headcount is small enough that the wage figure rests on relatively few responses, so treat it as indicative rather than firm. For how that compares with the rest of the country, see the salary page.

How do you get licensed as an MFT in South Dakota?

You get licensed as an MFT in South Dakota by holding a qualifying master's degree first, and that degree comes either from the single accredited master's program above or from an accredited program somewhere else, because it is the one part of the route with no local substitute. The rest of the route, hours and examination and the paperwork around them, is defined by the South Dakota state board rather than by the accreditor, and this page sends you there rather than paraphrasing rules that move.

What accreditation buys is a shorter conversation with the state board, which is why all one master's MFT program listed here is accredited and no unaccredited one appears. Worth weighing alongside it: South Dakota carries fewer of these jobs per head than the country as a whole, at 0.42 times the national rate, so ask the programs above where their graduates actually end up.

The South Dakota state board is worth contacting before you apply, not after. Its answers on supervised hours and on out-of-state experience are the ones that bind, and they occasionally differ from what accredited programs tell prospective students.

The career page walks the same route in order, and the methodology sets out how the programs above were scored.

MFT programs in South Dakota by city

One city in South Dakota has a page of its own, covering the programs based there and what the license pays in that metropolitan area. Programs in the rest of the state are on this page and nowhere else.

Where else can you study if South Dakota does not have what you want?

Where else you can study matters more in South Dakota than in most states: a one-program offering means most people weighing this decision are weighing somewhere else too, which is the shape of a small field rather than a failure of the state.

The nearest alternatives with accredited master's MFT programs are Illinois (five), Indiana (four), Iowa (one). 17 states have no accredited programs at this level at all, which is the gap the accredited distance programs exist to fill.

Everything you could study without leaving South Dakota is on the online and hybrid master's ranking.

To see South Dakota's programs against the other 59 scored nationally, the national ranking puts them in one order.