Tucson, AZ (population: 551,067) has two game design schools within its city limits. The Art Institute of Tucson, the highest ranked school in the city with a game design program, has a total student population of 346. It is the 2732nd highest ranked school in the USA and the 32nd highest in the state of Arizona (#1 is Northern Arizona University).
Game Design students from Tucson schools who go on to become video game engineers, game designers, video game designers, game developers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 495,500 people working as computer software engineers, applications alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $90,170. Also, Computer software engineers, systems software make on average $96,620 per year and there are about 385,200 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Tucson area alone, there are 2,890 employed computer software engineers, systems software earning an average salary of $85,190. Computer software engineers, applications in this area earn $89,080/yr and there are 1,090 employed.
Tucson lies in Pima county, which is one of the 15 counties in Arizona. Overall, the Tucson area has 362,000 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $20/hr average worker wage, and a $40,870 average annual salary. Thus, about 3 out of every 1000 jobs in Tucson are held by computer software engineers, applications, and 8/1000 are held by computer software engineers, systems software.
Of the 2 game design schools in Tucson, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, The Art Institute of Tucson comes out as the most expensive ($25,117/yr) for game design students, with ITT Technical Institute-Tucson as the lowest, reported at only $22,755/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Tucson |
| Sierra Vista | AZ | 44,234 | 0 | - | 0 | 55.0 miles |
| Casa Grande | AZ | 47,388 | 1 | 16.7022 | 3 | 68.8 miles |
| Maricopa | AZ | 53,723 | 0 | - | 0 | 90.0 miles |
| Gilbert | AZ | 243,090 | 0 | - | 0 | 93.1 miles |
| Chandler | AZ | 258,122 | 5 | 22.1433 | 88 | 95.1 miles |
| Mesa | AZ | 474,115 | 6 | 20.6791 | 210 | 97.8 miles |