Birmingham, AL (population: 226,152) has six art and design schools within its city limits. Birmingham Southern College, the highest ranked school in the city with an art and design program, has a total student population of 1,549. It is the 215th highest ranked school in the USA and the 2nd highest in the state of Alabama (#1 is Auburn University Main Campus). To learn more about art and design programs in Birmingham, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of art and design professors at Birmingham Southern College such as Johnny Goodwin, Jim Neel, Timothy Smith, and Pamela Venz.
Art and Design students from Birmingham schools who go on to become designers, ad designers, advertising designers, commercial designers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 8,900 people working as fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $50,630. Also, Electrical and electronics drafters make on average $54,800 per year and there are about 30,590 of them employed in the US today.
Birmingham lies in Jefferson county, which is one of the 67 counties in Alabama. Overall, the Birmingham-Hoover area has 494,530 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $19/hr average worker wage, and a $40,060 average annual salary.
Of the 6 art and design schools in Birmingham, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Virginia College-Birmingham comes out as the most expensive ($21,586/yr) for art and design students, with Jefferson State Community College as the lowest, reported at only $6,192/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Birmingham |
| Tuscaloosa | AL | 93,932 | 3 | 20.4548 | 201 | 47.2 miles |
| Boaz | AL | - | 1 | 17.4406 | 20 | 59.0 miles |
| Alexander City | AL | - | 1 | 11.6004 | 38 | 63.6 miles |
| Selma | AL | - | 3 | 7.26701 | 32 | 78.7 miles |
| Huntsville | AL | 185,501 | 8 | 18.2034 | 320 | 82.2 miles |
| Montgomery | AL | 200,848 | 12 | 20.659 | 359 | 87.0 miles |
| Athens | AL | - | 7 | 24.5606 | 224 | 88.6 miles |
| Auburn University | AL | - | 1 | 74.9047 | 131 | 99.5 miles |