Kansas City, MO (population: 454,520) has two industrial design schools within a 100-mile radius of its city center. University of Kansas, the highest ranked school in this group with an industrial design program, has a total student population of 29,242. It is the 984th highest ranked school in the USA and one of the highest in the state . To learn more about industrial design programs in Kansas City, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of industrial design professors at University of Kansas such as Ruth Bowman, Todd Cero-Alt, Lois Greene, Andrea Herstowski, Thomas Huang, and Luke Jordan.
Industrial Design students from Kansas City 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 Kansas City-KS area alone, there are 2,070 employed graphic designers earning an average salary of $47,500. Industrial engineering technicians in this area earn $48,570/yr and there are 270 employed.
Kansas City lies in Jackson county, which is one of the 39 counties in Missouri. Overall, the Kansas City-KS area has 988,100 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 0.8% unemployment rate, $20.79/hr average worker wage, and a $43,240 average annual salary. Thus, about 0.272 out of every 1000 jobs in Kansas City are held by industrial engineering technicians, and 2.099/1000 are held by graphic designers.
Of the 2 industrial design schools with a 100-mile radius of Kansas City, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, University of Kansas comes out as the most expensive ($17,254/yr) for industrial design students, with State Fair Community College as the lowest, reported at only $5,029/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Kansas City |
| North Kansas City | MO | - | 1 | 17.668 | 0 | 1.0 miles |
| Parkville | MO | - | 1 | 24.2346 | 91 | 8.8 miles |
| Independence | MO | 110,030 | 5 | 14.6026 | 91 | 10.9 miles |
| Blue Springs | MO | 57,147 | 1 | 22.3674 | 5 | 16.6 miles |
| Lees Summit | MO | - | 1 | 10.817 | 19 | 16.7 miles |
| Lenexa | KS | 49,185 | 2 | 9.677 | 29 | 17.0 miles |
| Olathe | KS | 125,326 | 3 | 26.6113 | 75 | 21.2 miles |
| Lawrence | KS | 92,060 | 4 | 30.1334 | 36 | 39.7 miles |
| Atchison | KS | - | 2 | 13.325 | 58 | 43.3 miles |
| Saint Joseph | MO | 76,371 | 4 | 37.3685 | 160 | 46.6 miles |
| Ottawa | KS | - | 1 | 45.4994 | 36 | 52.1 miles |
| Topeka | KS | 124,629 | 5 | 27.0429 | 163 | 61.5 miles |
| Sedalia | MO | - | 2 | 20.9991 | 46 | 76.7 miles |
| Fort Scott | KS | - | 1 | 19.5238 | 38 | 89.0 miles |
| Iola | KS | - | 1 | 14.0674 | 83 | 94.6 miles |