San Diego, CA (population: 1,309,749) has three video game design schools within its city limits. The Art Institute of California-San Diego, the highest ranked school in the city with a video game design program, has a total student population of 2,040. It is the 2270th highest ranked school in the USA and the 210th highest in the state of California (#1 is University of California-Los Angeles). To learn more about video game design programs in San Diego, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of video game design professors at The Art Institute of California such as Rick Barazza, Christian Bradley, Pete Cruz, Asa Enochs, Sal Filippone, and Tobias Flores.
Video Game Design students from San Diego schools who go on to become video game designers, game developers, video game developers, video game engineers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 495,500 people working as computer software engineers, applications alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $90,170. Also, Computer software engineers, systems software make on average $96,620 per year and there are about 385,200 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos area alone, there are 4,530 employed computer software engineers, systems software earning an average salary of $95,370. Computer software engineers, applications in this area earn $95,590/yr and there are 7,010 employed.
San Diego lies in San Diego county, which is one of the 57 counties in California. Overall, the San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos area has 1,279,330 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $23/hr average worker wage, and a $48,860 average annual salary. Thus, about 5 out of every 1000 jobs in San Diego are held by computer software engineers, applications, and 4/1000 are held by computer software engineers, systems software.
Of the 3 video game design schools in San Diego, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Platt College-San Diego comes out as the most expensive ($34,413/yr) for video game design students, with The Art Institute of California-San Diego as the lowest, reported at only $29,734/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from San Diego |
| Chula Vista | CA | 226,606 | 2 | 21.0599 | 146 | 13.7 miles |
| Encinitas | CA | 61,488 | 0 | - | 0 | 18.0 miles |
| San Marcos | CA | 82,614 | 4 | 36.7693 | 363 | 22.9 miles |
| Carlsbad | CA | 99,613 | 3 | 21.734 | 46 | 23.1 miles |
| Escondido | CA | 139,583 | 1 | 0.0163751 | 0 | 23.2 miles |
| Temecula | CA | 104,516 | 3 | 32.0583 | 15 | 47.7 miles |
| Laguna Niguel | CA | 65,471 | 0 | - | 0 | 59.4 miles |
| Lake Elsinore | CA | 56,703 | 0 | - | 0 | 60.4 miles |
| Aliso Viejo | CA | 42,862 | 1 | 75.2668 | 4 | 62.7 miles |
| Mission Viejo | CA | 95,388 | 1 | 19.6994 | 137 | 62.7 miles |
| Laguna Beach | CA | - | 1 | 20.4608 | 2 | 62.9 miles |
| Newport Beach | CA | 80,777 | 1 | 0.80626 | 0 | 69.6 miles |
| Costa Mesa | CA | 113,091 | 7 | 22.8122 | 265 | 74.3 miles |
| Tustin | CA | 74,313 | 0 | - | 0 | 74.5 miles |
| Palm Desert | CA | 52,240 | 2 | 19.2411 | 98 | 77.3 miles |
| Fountain Valley | CA | 56,133 | 3 | 26.6774 | 70 | 77.9 miles |
| Riverside | CA | 302,653 | 8 | 32.5108 | 359 | 79.6 miles |
| Cathedral City | CA | 53,114 | 0 | - | 0 | 80.8 miles |
| Garden Grove | CA | 167,800 | 4 | 26.4852 | 22 | 82.2 miles |
| Anaheim | CA | 342,336 | 9 | 24.4064 | 97 | 82.8 miles |
| Coachella | CA | 42,148 | 1 | 32.7647 | 6 | 83.1 miles |
| Yorba Linda | CA | 67,194 | 0 | - | 0 | 83.1 miles |
| Fullerton | CA | 133,165 | 6 | 21.8966 | 252 | 87.0 miles |
| Cypress | CA | 47,588 | 2 | 8.65396 | 110 | 87.1 miles |
| Chino Hills | CA | 74,322 | 0 | - | 0 | 87.6 miles |
| Chino | CA | 84,585 | 0 | - | 0 | 88.9 miles |
| Long Beach | CA | 464,505 | 6 | 26.5161 | 271 | 89.8 miles |
| Ontario | CA | 174,731 | 7 | 23.7233 | 124 | 90.0 miles |
| Cerritos | CA | 51,327 | 3 | 18.7768 | 18 | 90.9 miles |
| Diamond Bar | CA | 57,662 | 0 | - | 0 | 91.0 miles |