Contact: Jerry Poling, 715-232-2384, polingj@uwstout.edu
Game design program ranked 21st by Princeton Review; MFA 16th
Menomonie, Wis. — The game design and development undergraduate program at University of Wisconsin-Stout once again has been named one of the best in North America.
Princeton Review’s 2016 rankings, released Tuesday, March 15, listed UW-Stout’s program at No. 21. It was the only program from Wisconsin, Minnesota or Iowa to make the top 50 list.
This is the fourth straight year UW-Stout’s program has been ranked in the top 30 either by Princeton Review or Animation Career Review.
In a separate Princeton Review ranking of the 2016 top 25 graduate schools for video game design, UW-Stout ranked 16th. UW-Stout’s Graduate School offers a Master of Fine Arts in design with eight concentrations, including game design.
See the lists at www.princetonreview.com/press/game-design-press-release.
“UW-Stout is pleased to be nationally ranked again as a top game design school. Although we are a small, Midwestern university, we provide our students a high quality education by combining computer science and art students to create new and innovative games,” said Diane Christie, director of the game design computer science program. “These industry-simulated classes, along with internships and field experiences, prepare our students to compete on a national level.”
UW-Stout offers two undergraduate game design programs, a Bachelor of Science program with a focus on computer science and a Bachelor of Fine Arts program with a focus on art.
Math and computer science skills are needed to develop computer graphics, artificial intelligence and game engines. Art and design skills, such as drawing, digital imaging and animation, are needed to create interface components, 3D environments and 3D characters.
Dave Beck, director of the game design-art program, says UW-Stout’s two programs complement and strengthen each other.
“The strong emphasis on cross-disciplinary collaboration in our game design classes demonstrates a synergy between the arts and sciences that is not found in many university settings. That unique approach to teaching, coupled with opportunities for students such as faculty-led study abroad programs in game design and access to cutting edge software, hardware and virtual reality equipment, allows us to stand out from the crowd as a top-tier, unique and affordable college experience,” Beck said.
The rankings are based on a survey of 150 schools in the U.S. and Canada that offer video game design. Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s senior vice president and publisher, called it a “burgeoning” field and said the ranked schools offer “extraordinary opportunities” for students.
“The faculties at these schools are outstanding. Their facilities are awesome. And their alumni include legions of the industry’s most prominent game designers, developers, artists and entrepreneurs,” Franek said.
Princeton Review, an educational services company, is known for its annual rankings of colleges, law schools and business schools. It is not associated with Princeton University and is not a magazine.
UW-Stout’s original game design and development program was approved in 2009 by the UW System Board of Regents. The BFA program was approved in December 2014.
To learn more about the game design programs, go to www.uwstout.edu/gamedesign.” >http://www.uwstout.edu/programs/mfad.
UW-Stout, Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, has 9,535 students in 48 undergraduate majors and 23 graduate majors, including one doctoral degree. UW-Stout, established in 1891, prides itself on the success of its students in the workplace, with a graduate employment rate at or above 97 percent for recent graduates. The university was awarded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality award in 2001.
