San Jose, CA (population: 977,893) has two cooking schools within its city limits. CET-Sobrato, the highest ranked school in the city with a cooking program, has a total student population of 649. It is the 1657th highest ranked school in the USA and the 146th highest in the state of California (#1 is University of California-Los Angeles).
Cooking students from San Jose 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 Jose lies in Santa Clara county, which is one of the 57 counties in California. Overall, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area has 888,960 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $32/hr average worker wage, and a $66,780 average annual salary.
Of the 2 cooking schools in San Jose, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, CET-Sobrato comes out as the most expensive ($15,561/yr) for cooking students, with San Jose City College as the lowest, reported at only $11,291/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from San Jose |
| Santa Clara | CA | 112,889 | 4 | 29.9373 | 188 | 8.2 miles |
| Milpitas | CA | 69,900 | 1 | 18.2292 | 19 | 9.3 miles |
| Sunnyvale | CA | 135,564 | 4 | 17.5213 | 21 | 11.7 miles |
| Fremont | CA | 207,431 | 5 | 26.457 | 262 | 17.9 miles |
| Union City | CA | 76,462 | 1 | 13.7752 | 0 | 22.8 miles |
| Santa Cruz | CA | 57,690 | 2 | 37.6705 | 80 | 25.1 miles |
| Hayward | CA | 145,517 | 6 | 17.5402 | 239 | 26.6 miles |
| Dublin | CA | 46,208 | 3 | 13.8145 | 117 | 29.2 miles |
| Castro Valley | CA | 65,952 | 0 | - | 0 | 30.6 miles |
| San Mateo | CA | 93,990 | 1 | 15.1982 | 101 | 31.0 miles |
| San Leandro | CA | 78,904 | 1 | 29.9223 | 11 | 32.8 miles |
| Oakland | CA | 412,612 | 12 | 26.3295 | 321 | 38.3 miles |
| Alameda | CA | 71,628 | 3 | 11.6549 | 62 | 39.5 miles |
| South San Francisco | CA | 64,345 | 0 | - | 0 | 40.0 miles |
| Walnut Creek | CA | 64,055 | 0 | - | 0 | 42.8 miles |
| Berkeley | CA | 102,237 | 13 | 2.98519 | 59 | 45.7 miles |
| San Francisco | CA | 817,411 | 21 | 17.5697 | 455 | 46.3 miles |
| Concord | CA | 122,338 | 7 | 21.1076 | 136 | 47.1 miles |
| Antioch | CA | 102,439 | 2 | 25.0238 | 14 | 47.8 miles |
| Pittsburg | CA | 67,613 | 2 | 20.7913 | 157 | 49.9 miles |
| Salida | CA | - | 2 | 26.0837 | 19 | 50.5 miles |
| Ceres | CA | 43,443 | 0 | - | 0 | 53.1 miles |
| Modesto | CA | 203,882 | 4 | 24.9737 | 137 | 53.4 miles |
| Stockton | CA | 291,422 | 7 | 28.794 | 278 | 55.0 miles |
| Vallejo | CA | 114,029 | 1 | 31.5233 | 11 | 60.4 miles |
| Fairfield | CA | 104,184 | 9 | 23.8893 | 386 | 66.5 miles |
| Napa | CA | 75,759 | 1 | 15.1485 | 56 | 73.4 miles |
| Merced | CA | 78,579 | 3 | 29.789 | 150 | 75.4 miles |
| Laguna | CA | 60,976 | 0 | - | 0 | 81.0 miles |
| West Sacramento | CA | 50,542 | 1 | 29.8049 | 4 | 88.7 miles |