San Diego, CA (population: 1,309,749) has two cooking schools within its city limits. The Art Institute of California-San Diego, the highest ranked school in the city with a cooking program, has a total student population of 2,040. It is the 2270th highest ranked school in the USA and the 210th highest in the state of California (#1 is University of California-Los Angeles).
Cooking students from San Diego schools who go on to become chefs, cooks, sous chefs, line cooks, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 94,300 people working as chefs and head cooks alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $44,240. Also, Cooks, private household make on average $27,720 per year and there are about 770 of them employed in the US today.
San Diego lies in San Diego county, which is one of the 57 counties in California. Overall, the San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos area has 1,279,330 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $23/hr average worker wage, and a $48,860 average annual salary.
Of the 2 cooking schools in San Diego, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, The Art Institute of California-San Diego comes out as the most expensive ($29,734/yr) for cooking students, with San Diego Mesa College as the lowest, reported at only $8,010/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from San Diego |
| Chula Vista | CA | 226,606 | 2 | 21.0599 | 146 | 13.7 miles |
| Encinitas | CA | 61,488 | 0 | - | 0 | 18.0 miles |
| San Marcos | CA | 82,614 | 4 | 36.7693 | 363 | 22.9 miles |
| Carlsbad | CA | 99,613 | 3 | 21.734 | 46 | 23.1 miles |
| Escondido | CA | 139,583 | 1 | 0.0163751 | 0 | 23.2 miles |
| Temecula | CA | 104,516 | 3 | 32.0583 | 15 | 47.7 miles |
| Laguna Niguel | CA | 65,471 | 0 | - | 0 | 59.4 miles |
| Lake Elsinore | CA | 56,703 | 0 | - | 0 | 60.4 miles |
| Aliso Viejo | CA | 42,862 | 1 | 75.2668 | 4 | 62.7 miles |
| Mission Viejo | CA | 95,388 | 1 | 19.6994 | 137 | 62.7 miles |
| Laguna Beach | CA | - | 1 | 20.4608 | 2 | 62.9 miles |
| Newport Beach | CA | 80,777 | 1 | 0.80626 | 0 | 69.6 miles |
| Costa Mesa | CA | 113,091 | 7 | 22.8122 | 265 | 74.3 miles |
| Tustin | CA | 74,313 | 0 | - | 0 | 74.5 miles |
| Palm Desert | CA | 52,240 | 2 | 19.2411 | 98 | 77.3 miles |
| Fountain Valley | CA | 56,133 | 3 | 26.6774 | 70 | 77.9 miles |
| Riverside | CA | 302,653 | 8 | 32.5108 | 359 | 79.6 miles |
| Cathedral City | CA | 53,114 | 0 | - | 0 | 80.8 miles |
| Garden Grove | CA | 167,800 | 4 | 26.4852 | 22 | 82.2 miles |
| Anaheim | CA | 342,336 | 9 | 24.4064 | 97 | 82.8 miles |
| Coachella | CA | 42,148 | 1 | 32.7647 | 6 | 83.1 miles |
| Yorba Linda | CA | 67,194 | 0 | - | 0 | 83.1 miles |
| Fullerton | CA | 133,165 | 6 | 21.8966 | 252 | 87.0 miles |
| Cypress | CA | 47,588 | 2 | 8.65396 | 110 | 87.1 miles |
| Chino Hills | CA | 74,322 | 0 | - | 0 | 87.6 miles |
| Chino | CA | 84,585 | 0 | - | 0 | 88.9 miles |
| Long Beach | CA | 464,505 | 6 | 26.5161 | 271 | 89.8 miles |
| Ontario | CA | 174,731 | 7 | 23.7233 | 124 | 90.0 miles |
| Cerritos | CA | 51,327 | 3 | 18.7768 | 18 | 90.9 miles |
| Diamond Bar | CA | 57,662 | 0 | - | 0 | 91.0 miles |