Fresno, CA (population: 490,930) has five art and design schools within its city limits. Fresno Pacific University, the highest ranked school in the city with an art and design program, has a total student population of 2,668. It is the 326th highest ranked school in the USA and the 24th highest in the state of California (#1 is University of California-Los Angeles).
Art and Design students from Fresno 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.
Fresno lies in Fresno county, which is one of the 57 counties in California. Overall, the Fresno area has 323,470 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $19/hr average worker wage, and a $40,460 average annual salary.
Of the 5 art and design schools in Fresno, only 2 have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Manchester Beauty College comes out as the most expensive ($17,498/yr) for art and design students, with California State University-Fresno as the lowest, reported at only $5,579/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Fresno |
| Hanford | CA | 51,853 | 0 | - | 0 | 32.1 miles |
| Visalia | CA | 127,444 | 7 | 18.6498 | 161 | 40.6 miles |
| Merced | CA | 78,579 | 3 | 29.789 | 150 | 52.4 miles |
| Porterville | CA | 53,185 | 1 | 11.8615 | 42 | 65.3 miles |
| Ceres | CA | 43,443 | 0 | - | 0 | 85.9 miles |
| Sonora | CA | - | 1 | 10.5858 | 57 | 89.4 miles |
| Modesto | CA | 203,882 | 4 | 24.9737 | 137 | 89.9 miles |
| Salida | CA | - | 2 | 26.0837 | 19 | 95.8 miles |