San Francisco, CA (population: 817,411) has five arts schools within its city limits. San Francisco State University, the highest ranked school in the city with an arts program, has a total student population of 30,469. It is the 1329th highest ranked school in the USA and the 106th highest in the state of California (#1 is University of California-Los Angeles). To learn more about arts programs in San Francisco, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of arts professors at San Francisco State University such as Alexander, Susan Belau, Steve Bird, Gail Dawson, Vic De La Rosa, and Lewis De Soto.
Arts students from San Francisco schools who go on to become artists, graphic designers, journalists, musicians, 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, Craft artists make on average $33,070 per year and there are about 5,380 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City Metropolitan area alone, there are 60 employed craft artists earning an average salary of $46,550. Fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators in this area earn $76,590/yr and there are ** employed.
San Francisco lies in San Francisco county, which is one of the 57 counties in California. Overall, the San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City Metropolitan area has 982,930 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $30/hr average worker wage, and a $61,940 average annual salary. Thus, about ** out of every 1000 jobs in San Francisco are held by fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators, and 0/1000 are held by craft artists.
Of the 5 arts schools in San Francisco, only 3 have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, California Culinary Academy comes out as the most expensive ($32,251/yr) for arts students, with City College of San Francisco as the lowest, reported at only $4,129/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from San Francisco |
| South San Francisco | CA | 64,345 | 0 | - | 0 | 7.8 miles |
| Alameda | CA | 71,628 | 3 | 11.6549 | 62 | 10.4 miles |
| Berkeley | CA | 102,237 | 13 | 2.98519 | 59 | 12.0 miles |
| Oakland | CA | 412,612 | 12 | 26.3295 | 321 | 12.6 miles |
| San Mateo | CA | 93,990 | 1 | 15.1982 | 101 | 16.4 miles |
| San Leandro | CA | 78,904 | 1 | 29.9223 | 11 | 16.9 miles |
| Hayward | CA | 145,517 | 6 | 17.5402 | 239 | 21.5 miles |
| Castro Valley | CA | 65,952 | 0 | - | 0 | 21.7 miles |
| Walnut Creek | CA | 64,055 | 0 | - | 0 | 24.1 miles |
| Vallejo | CA | 114,029 | 1 | 31.5233 | 11 | 25.7 miles |
| Union City | CA | 76,462 | 1 | 13.7752 | 0 | 26.3 miles |
| Concord | CA | 122,338 | 7 | 21.1076 | 136 | 28.2 miles |
| Fremont | CA | 207,431 | 5 | 26.457 | 262 | 29.7 miles |
| Dublin | CA | 46,208 | 3 | 13.8145 | 117 | 29.7 miles |
| Sunnyvale | CA | 135,564 | 4 | 17.5213 | 21 | 34.9 miles |
| Pittsburg | CA | 67,613 | 2 | 20.7913 | 157 | 35.1 miles |
| Napa | CA | 75,759 | 1 | 15.1485 | 56 | 37.6 miles |
| Santa Clara | CA | 112,889 | 4 | 29.9373 | 188 | 38.2 miles |
| Antioch | CA | 102,439 | 2 | 25.0238 | 14 | 38.6 miles |
| Milpitas | CA | 69,900 | 1 | 18.2292 | 19 | 38.7 miles |
| Fairfield | CA | 104,184 | 9 | 23.8893 | 386 | 40.0 miles |
| San Jose | CA | 977,893 | 9 | 20.6572 | 297 | 46.3 miles |
| Santa Cruz | CA | 57,690 | 2 | 37.6705 | 80 | 59.8 miles |
| Stockton | CA | 291,422 | 7 | 28.794 | 278 | 63.8 miles |
| Laguna | CA | 60,976 | 0 | - | 0 | 71.9 miles |
| Woodland | CA | 56,758 | 0 | - | 0 | 73.0 miles |
| West Sacramento | CA | 50,542 | 1 | 29.8049 | 4 | 73.4 miles |
| Salida | CA | - | 2 | 26.0837 | 19 | 74.8 miles |
| Sacramento | CA | 475,452 | 20 | 22.3687 | 626 | 76.8 miles |
| Modesto | CA | 203,882 | 4 | 24.9737 | 137 | 80.2 miles |