Memphis, TN (population: 662,989) has eighteen jewelry schools within a 500-mile radius of its city center. Lake Career and Technical Center, the highest ranked school in this group with a jewelry program, has a total student population of 5. It is the 945th highest ranked school in the USA and the 28th highest in the state of Missouri (#1 is Webster University).
Jewelry students from Memphis schools who go on to become jewelers, jewelry designers, jewelry makers, jewelry repairers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 23,410 people working as jewelers and precious stone and metal workers alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $36,620. Also, Craft artists make on average $33,070 per year and there are about 5,380 of them employed in the US today.
Memphis lies in Shelby county, which is one of the 26 counties in Tennessee. Overall, the Memphis-MS-AR area has 605,630 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1.2% unemployment rate, $18.93/hr average worker wage, and a $39,380 average annual salary.
Of the 18 jewelry schools with a 500-mile radius of Memphis, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Gem City College comes out as the most expensive ($15,147/yr) for jewelry students, with Lake Career and Technical Center as the lowest, reported at only $1,244/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Memphis |
| Southaven | MS | 47,625 | 1 | 27.9087 | 11 | 9.7 miles |
| Bartlett | TN | 47,744 | 0 | - | 0 | 12.3 miles |
| Senatobia | MS | - | 1 | 17.4796 | 114 | 34.1 miles |
| Jonesboro | AR | 66,734 | 1 | 24.4204 | 8 | 62.3 miles |
| State University | AR | - | 1 | 57.8251 | 135 | 63.1 miles |