Cleveland, OH (population: 424,526) has three game design schools within its city limits. Notre Dame College, the highest ranked school in the city with a game design program, has a total student population of 1,872. It is the 2974th highest ranked school in the USA and the 167th highest in the state of Ohio (#1 is Ohio State University-Main Campus).
Game Design students from Cleveland 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 Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor area alone, there are 1,250 employed computer software engineers, systems software earning an average salary of $74,790. Computer software engineers, applications in this area earn $80,920/yr and there are 3,570 employed.
Cleveland lies in Cuyahoga county, which is one of the 36 counties in Ohio. Overall, the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor area has 1,003,270 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1.0% unemployment rate, $20.16/hr average worker wage, and a $41,930 average annual salary. Thus, about 3.563 out of every 1000 jobs in Cleveland are held by computer software engineers, applications, and 1.245/1000 are held by computer software engineers, systems software.
Of the 3 game design schools in Cleveland, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Cleveland Institute of Art comes out as the most expensive ($20,775/yr) for game design students, with Notre Dame College as the lowest, reported at only $18,283/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Cleveland |
| Cleveland Heights | OH | 44,848 | 1 | 34.6777 | 3 | 6.6 miles |
| Parma | OH | 76,338 | 1 | 26.2004 | 15 | 7.4 miles |
| Warrensville Heights | OH | - | 1 | 16.9884 | 13 | 8.6 miles |
| Highland Heights | OH | - | 2 | 31.299 | 116 | 11.6 miles |
| North Olmsted | OH | - | 1 | 26.1035 | 13 | 13.4 miles |
| Strongsville | OH | 42,251 | 1 | 28.2567 | 15 | 14.1 miles |
| Cuyahoga Falls | OH | 51,250 | 1 | 27.2194 | 16 | 23.0 miles |
| Mentor | OH | 52,000 | 2 | 33.5238 | 9 | 23.2 miles |
| Elyria | OH | 54,854 | 1 | 9.2858 | 63 | 23.3 miles |
| Medina | OH | - | 2 | 28.5662 | 14 | 25.5 miles |
| Lorain | OH | 70,400 | 1 | 24.183 | 2 | 26.1 miles |
| Akron | OH | 205,375 | 10 | 16.7669 | 304 | 28.9 miles |
| Suffield | OH | - | 2 | 21.6911 | 11 | 36.0 miles |
| North Canton | OH | - | 2 | 20.0373 | 113 | 44.2 miles |
| Milan | OH | - | 1 | 27.8478 | 15 | 49.7 miles |
| Youngstown | OH | 71,023 | 5 | 24.5415 | 214 | 59.6 miles |
| Lisbon | OH | - | 1 | 6.46571 | 19 | 68.2 miles |
| New Philadelphia | OH | - | 2 | 20.6614 | 41 | 69.6 miles |
| New Wilmington | PA | - | 1 | 66.0236 | 69 | 74.2 miles |
| Meadville | PA | - | 3 | 46.4275 | 58 | 79.9 miles |
| Tiffin | OH | - | 3 | 36.5272 | 159 | 81.8 miles |
| Erie | PA | 103,895 | 10 | 28.3152 | 329 | 93.5 miles |
| Saint Clair Shores | MI | 59,971 | 1 | 11.5792 | 3 | 93.5 miles |
| Detroit | MI | 901,160 | 11 | 18.127 | 476 | 96.0 miles |
| Taylor | MI | 58,134 | 1 | 26.0382 | 3 | 97.0 miles |
| Dearborn | MI | 82,453 | 3 | 34.0016 | 184 | 97.5 miles |
| Warren | MI | 133,470 | 6 | 23.1927 | 131 | 98.5 miles |
| Toledo | OH | 288,207 | 7 | 20.3804 | 301 | 99.1 miles |
| Clinton Township | MI | - | 2 | 7.68254 | 63 | 99.6 miles |