The Princeton Review's 2020 Ranking Lists of Top Undergrad & Grad Schools to Study Game Design Are Now Out

#1 Undergrad School: University of Southern California

#1 Grad School: University of Central Florida

NEW YORK, March 3, 2020 / — The Princeton Review ® — known for its education services and school rankings in dozens of categories — today released its 11th annual ranking lists naming the top 50 undergraduate and top 25 graduate schools offering game design programs.

For the third year in a row, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles earned the #1 spot on the undergraduate list. The University of Central Florida in Orlando ranked #1 on the graduate list, up from #5 last year.

The Princeton Review posted the full ranking lists on its website at Top Schools For Game Design 2020 . (The 10 top schools on each list are below.)

The Princeton Review chose the schools based on data it collected in its 2019 survey of administrators at 150 institutions that offer game design courses, majors, or degree programs. Surveyed schools were in the U.S., Canada, and abroad.

The 50-question survey broadly covered four areas: academics, faculty, technology, and career prospects. It requested information on everything from the schools' academic programs and facilities to the starting salaries and professional achievements of game design program graduates. In all, the company analyzed more than 40 survey data points to tally the rankings. Detailed information about The Princeton Review's methodology for the rankings is accessible here .

"We recommend these schools highly to students considering careers in the exciting field of game design," said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's Editor-in-Chief. "All of the schools that made our lists for 2020 have excellent programs, outstanding faculties, and awesome, state-of-the-art facilities. Not surprisingly, they count among their alumni many of the video game industry’s most prominent artists, designers, developers, and entrepreneurs.”

Franek also noted survey findings revealing the exceptional level of professional experience that students in game design studies at the schools attained last year.

At the 50 undergraduate and 25 graduate schools on the lists for 2020, on average:

More than half of the students in the programs worked on a shipped game as part of their game design studies. At undergraduate school programs, the figure was 62 percent. At graduate programs, it was 57 percent.

8 out of 10 students in the programs developed a plan to launch a game after graduation. At undergraduate school programs, the figure was 85 percent. At graduate school programs, it was 80 percent.

The Princeton Review has reported its Top Schools for Game Design ranking lists annually since 2010. In 2013, the company teamed up with PC Gamer , a monthly magazine published by Future PLC as its annual reporting partner on this project.

PC Gamer 's May issue has a feature on the 2020 ranking lists. It reports interesting and fun facts on the schools' programs, faculty, and alumni. The issue lands in subscriber mailboxes this week and will appear on newsstands March 24.

The Princeton Review's profiles of the schools, accessible here , give applicants information on admission requirements, distinctive programs, financial aid resources, and more.

The top 10 schools on The Princeton Review's list of Top 50 Undergraduate Schools to Study Game Design for 2020 are:





University of Southern California (Los Angeles) Becker College (Worcester, MA) New York University (Brooklyn, NY) DigiPen Institute of Technology (Redmond, WA) Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY) University of Utah (Salt Lake City) Michigan State University (East Lansing) Bradley University (Peoria, IL) Shawnee State University (Portsmouth, OH) Vancouver Film School (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

The top 10 schools on The Princeton Review's list of Top 25 Graduate Schools to Study Game Design for 2020 are:





University of Central Florida (Orlando) University of Southern California (Los Angeles) New York University (Brooklyn, NY) Southern Methodist University (Plano, TX) University of Utah (Salt Lake City) DigiPen Institute of Technology (Redmond, WA) Abertay University (Dundee, Scotland) Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA) Michigan State University (East Lansing) Becker College (Worcester, MA)

About The Princeton Review

The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep, and college admission services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school–bound students achieve their education and career goals through online and in-person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors, online resources, and its more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House. The company’s Tutor.com brand is the largest online tutoring service in the U.S. It comprises a community of thousands of tutors who have delivered more than 18 million one-to-one tutoring sessions. The Princeton Review is headquartered in New York, NY. The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University. For more information, visit PrincetonReview.com . Follow the company on Twitter @ThePrincetonRev and Instagram @theprincetonreview .

About Future PLC

Future is a global platform business where the most passionate people on the planet educate and inform their niche audiences. The Media division is high-growth with three complementary revenue streams: eCommerce, events and digital advertising. It operates in a number of sectors including technology, games, music, home interest, hobbies and B2B and its brands include TechRadar, PC Gamer, WindowsCentral, Tom’s Guide, Homebuilding & Renovating Show, iMore, GamesRadar+, The Photography Show, Top Ten Reviews, Live Science, Guitar World, MusicRadar, AndroidCentral, Space.com and Tom’s Hardware. The Magazine division focuses on publishing specialist content, with over 80 publications and over 520 bookazines published per year, totaling global circulation of 1.3 million. The Magazine portfolio spans technology, gaming, entertainment, music, photography, hobbies, home interest and B2B. Most popular titles include Classic Rock, Guitar Player, FourFourTwo, Homebuilding & Renovating, Digital Camera, Guitarist, How It Works, Total Film, What Hi-Fi? and Music Week.

SOURCE

The Princeton Review

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CONTACTS

The Princeton Review:

Jeanne Krier, Publicist, and Suzanne Podhurst, Director of Communications and Social Media, PressOffice@review.com

PC Gamer / Future PLC:

Marc Fonzetti, VP, US Marketing, marc.fonzetti@futurenet.com , 646-668-6173

NOTE TO EDITORS

The Princeton Review's Robert Franek, Editor-in-Chief, and David Soto, Director of Content Development, are available for interviews. Reporter resources including lists of ranked schools organized in two ways (alphabetical by country/state/city/school and alphabetical by school), and information on the survey methodology are at www.princetonreview.com/press/game-design-press-release .

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List of Programs: Alpha by Country / State / City / School

Belgium

Kortrijk / Howest University of Applied Sciences (Ugrad #21)

CANADA

Oakville / Sheridan College (Ugrad #38)

Vancouver / LaSalle College Vancouver (Ugrad #22)

Vancouver / Vancouver Film School (Ugrad #10)

England

Penryn / Falmouth University (Ugrad #39)

MALTA

Msida / University of Malta (Grad #16)



netherlands Breda / Breda University of Applied Sciences (Ugrad #20, Grad #19)



SCOTLAND

Dundee / Abertay University (Ugrad #13, Grad #7)

UNITED STATES

California

Laguna Beach / Laguna College of Art and Design (Ugrad #23, Grad #11)

Los Angeles / University of Southern California (Ugrad #1, Grad #2) Pasadena / ArtCenter College of Design (Ugrad #40) San Francisco / Academy of Art University (Ugrad #28)

San Jose / Cogswell College (Ugrad #18)

Santa Cruz / University of California — Santa Cruz (Grad #17)

Connecticut

Hamden / Quinnipiac University (Ugrad #31)

District of Columbia

Washington / American University (Grad #15)

Florida

Coral Gables / University of Miami (Grad #24)

Gainesville / University of Florida (Ugrad #43)

Orlando / University of Central Florida (Ugrad #14, Grad #1)

Winter Park / Full Sail University (Ugrad #48, Grad #20)

Georgia

Marietta / Kennesaw State University (Ugrad #44)

Savannah / Savannah College of Art and Design (Ugrad #27, Grad #18)

Illinois

Chicago / DePaul University (Ugrad #45, Grad #21)

Peoria / Bradley University (Ugrad #8)

Indiana

Bloomington / Indiana University (Ugrad #41)

Maryland Baltimore / Maryland Institute College of Art (Ugrad #32)



Massachusetts

Amherst / Hampshire College (Ugrad #15)

Boston / Northeastern University (Ugrad #29)

Cambridge / Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ugrad #50, Grad #25)

Worcester / Becker College (Ugrad #2, Grad #10)

Worcester / Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Ugrad #12, Grad #8)

Michigan

Dearborn / University of Michigan-Dearborn (Ugrad #46)

East Lansing / Michigan State University (Ugrad #7, Grad #9)

Grand Rapids / Ferris State University (Ugrad #25)

New Jersey



Bloomfield / Bloomfield College (Ugrad #30)

Newark / New Jersey Institute of Technology (Ugrad #47)



New York

Brooklyn / New York University (Ugrad #3, Grad #3)

Ithaca / Cornell University (Ugrad #49)

Poughkeepsie / Marist College (Ugrad #34)

Rochester / Rochester Institute of Technology (Ugrad #5, Grad #12)

Troy / Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Ugrad #17, Grad #23)

North Carolina

Raleigh / North Carolina State University (Ugrad #36)

Ohio

Oxford / Miami University (Ugrad #26)

Portsmouth / Shawnee State University (Ugrad #9)

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City / Oklahoma Christian University (Ugrad #37)

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia / Drexel University (Ugrad #11, Grad #14)

Rhode Island

East Greenwich / New England Institute of Technology (Ugrad #42)

Texas

Abilene / Abilene Christian University (Ugrad #35)

Austin / The University of Texas at Austin (Ugrad #33)

Plano / Southern Methodist University (Grad #4)

Richardson / The University of Texas at Dallas (Ugrad #19, Grad #13)

Utah

Salt Lake City / University of Utah (Ugrad #6, Grad #5)

Vermont

Burlington / Champlain College (Ugrad #16)

Washington

Redmond / DigiPen Institute of Technology (Ugrad #4, Grad #6)

Wisconsin

Menomonie / University of Wisconsin - Stout (Ugrad #24, Grad #22)

List of Programs: Alpha by School