Beauty Schools with the Best Teacher Ratio in San Francisco, CA Metro Area
One big factor that contributes to a high graduation rate is the amount of individual guidance and oversight students get as they navigate their beauty school programs. When a school has a low student-to-teacher ratio, class sizes are smaller, allowing instructors to spend more time one-on-one with each student.
In large classes, students may get lost in the shuffle, have less opportunity to interact with instructors, and have a harder time asking questions if they don't understand key concepts.
Let's review the schools with the top five best student-to-teacher ratios in the San Francisco Bay Area.
San Francisco, CA Beauty Schools with the Best Teacher Ratio
#1: Cinta Aveda Institute — San Francisco
10 students per teacher
Cinta Aveda Institute is tied for number one on the list of schools with the smallest class sizes in the San Francisco Metropolitan Area.
Since it's an Aveda school, students are trained in using natural and environmentally sustainable beauty products. With its excellent student-to-teacher ratio, students get ample time to understand why natural products are important, how they're formulated, and how to sell them to clients.
You can train to become a hairstylist, makeup artist, or skincare specialist at Cinta Aveda Institute. The curriculum prepares students for their licensing exams and careers as beauty professionals.
#1: JD Academy of Salon and Spa — Danville
10 students per teacher
JD Academy of Salon and Spa is the other half of this tie. It has the best student-to-teacher ratio in the San Francisco area. The average class has six students per instructor, providing students ample opportunity to ask questions and get more help with advanced concepts.
If you want to become a hairstylist, makeup artist, barber, esthetician, or manicurist, there's a program for you at JD Academy.
Students love the school's practice boards and hands-on approach to instruction, bolstered by the small class sizes and attention each student gets from their instructors.
#3: International College of Cosmetology — Oakland
11 students per teacher
International College of Cosmetology, or ICC, boasts one of the lowest student-teacher ratios in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Students in ICC's Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and English-speaking programs benefit from plenty of individual attention in the classroom and on the salon floor. English-speaking students can choose between cosmetology, esthetics, and manicuring programs. Students who prefer to learn in Spanish can choose between cosmetology and manicuring, while those who want to take courses in Vietnamese can take the manicuring course. However, efforts are made to provide materials in all these languages regardless of subject.
Each program, regardless of the language of instruction, prepares students for their state licensing exams. Expect instruction in topics like sanitation, anatomy of hair, skin, and nails, and business concepts.
Students who graduate from a Spanish- or Vietnamese-language program can also take exams in their respective languages.
#4: Urban Barber College — Concord
13 students per teacher
Urban Barber College has a low student-to-teacher ratio and offers barbering and barbering-crossover programs.
You'll study theoretical concepts like product chemistry and facial hair anatomy in the classroom. You'll spend 800 hours of training applying the knowledge you learned in the classroom to work with your peers and school salon clients.
#5: Hilltop Beauty School — Daly City
15 students per teacher
Hilltop Beauty School rounds out the top five San Francisco area beauty schools with the best student-to-teacher ratios.
At Hilltop, you can study cosmetology to become a hairstylist, makeup artist, or manicurist. Licensed cosmetologists can take the instructor-training course to transition from beauty school professionals to teachers.
Spanish-speaking students can take their entire cosmetology program (and exams) in Spanish. Manicuring and instructor training are currently only offered in English.
#6: Moler Barber College — Oakland
18 students per teacher
More San Francisco-Area Beauty School Rankings
Methodology and Editor’s Notes
We compared educational institutions from the Beauty Schools Directory database of beauty programs across the U.S. Those analyzed for these rankings were educational institutions that:
For this ranking, we used each school’s reported student-teacher ratio from 2022, the most recent available as of publication time.