Fresno, CA (population: 490,930) has seventeen industrial design schools within a 500-mile radius of its city center. Stanford University, the highest ranked school in this group with an industrial design program, has a total student population of 18,498. It is the 3rd highest ranked school in the USA and one of the highest in the state .
Industrial Design students from Fresno schools who go on to become industrial designers, commercial designers, architecture designers, designers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 65,460 people working as industrial engineering technicians alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $49,030. Also, Graphic designers make on average $47,820 per year and there are about 200,870 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Fresno area alone, there are 290 employed graphic designers earning an average salary of $47,710. Industrial engineering technicians in this area earn $53,550/yr and there are 40 employed.
Fresno lies in Fresno county, which is one of the 57 counties in California. Overall, the Fresno area has 323,470 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $19/hr average worker wage, and a $40,460 average annual salary. Thus, about 0 out of every 1000 jobs in Fresno are held by industrial engineering technicians, and 1/1000 are held by graphic designers.
Of the 17 industrial design schools with a 500-mile radius of Fresno, only 9 have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Anthem College-Phoenix comes out as the most expensive ($43,008/yr) for industrial design students, with California State University-Long Beach as the lowest, reported at only $6,861/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Fresno |
| Hanford | CA | 51,853 | 0 | - | 0 | 32.1 miles |
| Visalia | CA | 127,444 | 7 | 18.6498 | 161 | 40.6 miles |
| Merced | CA | 78,579 | 3 | 29.789 | 150 | 52.4 miles |
| Porterville | CA | 53,185 | 1 | 11.8615 | 42 | 65.3 miles |
| Ceres | CA | 43,443 | 0 | - | 0 | 85.9 miles |
| Sonora | CA | - | 1 | 10.5858 | 57 | 89.4 miles |
| Modesto | CA | 203,882 | 4 | 24.9737 | 137 | 89.9 miles |
| Salida | CA | - | 2 | 26.0837 | 19 | 95.8 miles |