Detroit, MI (population: 901,160) has two industrial design schools within its city limits. College for Creative Studies, the highest ranked school in the city with an industrial design program, has a total student population of 1,405. It is the 1959th highest ranked school in the USA and the 39th highest in the state of Michigan (#1 is Kalamazoo College). To learn more about industrial design programs in Detroit, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of industrial design professors at College for Creative Studies such as Greg Darby, Nelson Greer, Doug Kisor, Ken Krayer, Susan Laporte, and Kathleen McShane-Bolton.
Industrial Design students from Detroit 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 Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn Metropolitan area alone, there are 760 employed graphic designers earning an average salary of $44,010. Industrial engineering technicians in this area earn $53,380/yr and there are 730 employed.
Detroit lies in Wayne county, which is one of the 62 counties in Michigan. Overall, the Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn Metropolitan area has 705,820 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1.4% unemployment rate, $22.55/hr average worker wage, and a $46,900 average annual salary. Thus, about 1.034 out of every 1000 jobs in Detroit are held by industrial engineering technicians, and 1.081/1000 are held by graphic designers.
Of the 2 industrial design schools in Detroit, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, College for Creative Studies comes out as the most expensive ($28,628/yr) for industrial design students, with Wayne State University as the lowest, reported at only $10,147/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Detroit |
| Ferndale | MI | - | 1 | 11.6923 | 4 | 5.8 miles |
| Madison Heights | MI | - | 2 | 27.3656 | 17 | 7.3 miles |
| Dearborn | MI | 82,453 | 3 | 34.0016 | 184 | 7.4 miles |
| Warren | MI | 133,470 | 6 | 23.1927 | 131 | 8.4 miles |
| Royal Oak | MI | 56,742 | 1 | 28.1635 | 4 | 9.3 miles |
| Dearborn Heights | MI | 49,619 | 0 | - | 0 | 9.4 miles |
| Southfield | MI | 75,151 | 8 | 20.9451 | 96 | 10.7 miles |
| Saint Clair Shores | MI | 59,971 | 1 | 11.5792 | 3 | 13.1 miles |
| Taylor | MI | 58,134 | 1 | 26.0382 | 3 | 13.5 miles |
| Sterling Heights | MI | 127,075 | 1 | 28.9156 | 3 | 14.3 miles |
| Westland | MI | 75,634 | 1 | 16.8264 | 4 | 14.9 miles |
| Farmington Hills | MI | 78,114 | 1 | 0.013626 | 0 | 16.2 miles |
| Bloomfield Township | MI | 41,179 | 0 | - | 0 | 16.3 miles |
| Clinton Township | MI | - | 2 | 7.68254 | 63 | 17.0 miles |
| West Bloomfield Township | MI | 71,474 | 0 | - | 0 | 19.4 miles |
| Canton | MI | 94,521 | 12 | 27.6578 | 316 | 20.0 miles |
| Rochester Hills | MI | 68,883 | 1 | 23.9536 | 51 | 20.3 miles |
| Novi | MI | 54,922 | 1 | 10.8219 | 16 | 21.1 miles |
| Auburn Hills | MI | - | 2 | 5.8467 | 61 | 22.3 miles |
| Waterford | MI | 75,011 | 1 | 16.3502 | 6 | 24.4 miles |
| Ann Arbor | MI | 113,880 | 5 | 27.5859 | 183 | 33.0 miles |
| Port Huron | MI | - | 5 | 17.4204 | 129 | 53.4 miles |
| Flint | MI | 109,751 | 7 | 25.2834 | 318 | 53.5 miles |
| Sylvania | OH | - | 2 | 12.7922 | 52 | 55.5 miles |
| Toledo | OH | 288,207 | 7 | 20.3804 | 301 | 55.6 miles |
| Maumee | OH | - | 2 | 16.7962 | 34 | 63.3 miles |
| East Lansing | MI | 45,575 | 2 | 19.4594 | 4 | 74.6 miles |
| Spring Arbor | MI | - | 1 | 60.8655 | 91 | 75.3 miles |
| Lansing | MI | 112,579 | 5 | 18.9833 | 209 | 77.3 miles |
| Milan | OH | - | 1 | 27.8478 | 15 | 79.1 miles |