Kansas City, MO (population: 454,520) has four multimedia design schools within its city limits. Kansas City Art Institute, the highest ranked school in the city with a multimedia design program, has a total student population of 690. It is the 3541st highest ranked school in the USA and the 106th highest in the state of Missouri (#1 is Webster University). To learn more about multimedia design programs in Kansas City, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of multimedia design professors at Kansas City Art Institute such as Brockett Horne, Jonathon Kemnitzer, and Kelly Salchow.
Multimedia Design students from Kansas City schools who go on to become multimedia designers, interactive media designers, media designers, digital media designers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 28,800 people working as multimedia artists and animators alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $62,810. 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. Multimedia artists and animators in this area earn $46,140/yr and there are 300 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 0.300 out of every 1000 jobs in Kansas City are held by multimedia artists and animators, and 2.099/1000 are held by graphic designers.
Of the 4 multimedia design schools in Kansas City, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, DeVry University-Missouri comes out as the most expensive ($26,101/yr) for multimedia design students, with Vatterott College as the lowest, reported at only $15,149/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 |