Seattle, WA (population: 614,214) has four cooking schools within its city limits. The Art Institute of Seattle, the highest ranked school in the city with a cooking program, has a total student population of 2,282. It is the 2958th highest ranked school in the USA and the 56th highest in the state of Washington (#1 is University of Washington-Seattle Campus).
Cooking students from Seattle 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.
Seattle lies in King county, which is one of the 24 counties in Washington. Overall, the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett Metropolitan area has 1,404,710 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 0.7% unemployment rate, $25.60/hr average worker wage, and a $53,240 average annual salary.
Of the 4 cooking schools in Seattle, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, The Art Institute of Seattle comes out as the most expensive ($28,174/yr) for cooking students, with Seattle Community College-South Campus as the lowest, reported at only $6,159/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Seattle |
| Kirkland | WA | 48,153 | 2 | 17.9541 | 117 | 8.5 miles |
| Bellevue | WA | 128,225 | 4 | 10.794 | 140 | 9.0 miles |
| Tukwila | WA | - | 1 | 9.30665 | 25 | 10.9 miles |
| Bothell | WA | - | 2 | 28.3486 | 26 | 11.9 miles |
| Renton | WA | 66,884 | 4 | 19.959 | 76 | 12.0 miles |
| Lynnwood | WA | - | 1 | 17.534 | 76 | 14.0 miles |
| Edmonds | WA | 40,568 | 0 | - | 0 | 14.6 miles |
| Kent | WA | 84,987 | 1 | 34.1348 | 6 | 16.7 miles |
| Federal Way | WA | 84,659 | 2 | 22.1387 | 18 | 21.4 miles |
| Everett | WA | 99,092 | 6 | 27.2101 | 95 | 24.5 miles |
| Tacoma | WA | 200,855 | 9 | 34.3764 | 293 | 26.1 miles |
| Fife | WA | - | 1 | 33.1119 | 4 | 26.3 miles |
| Puyallup | WA | - | 1 | 10.872 | 24 | 30.2 miles |
| South Hill | WA | 63,243 | 0 | - | 0 | 33.4 miles |
| Olympia | WA | 46,257 | 2 | 20.9056 | 57 | 47.4 miles |
| Bellingham | WA | 82,173 | 5 | 30.4386 | 275 | 77.7 miles |
| Aberdeen | WA | - | 3 | 19.6431 | 151 | 82.0 miles |