Princeton Review’s Top 25 Graduate Schools to Study Game Design for 2016

On March 15, 2016, the Princeton Review released its seventh annual ranking lists naming the best undergraduate and graduate schools for students to study - and launch a career in - game design. UIC made the list of the top 25 graduate schools to study game design. The selection was based on a survey it conducted in 2015 of administrators at 150 institutions offering game design coursework and/or degrees in the U.S., Canada and some countries abroad.

The selection and ranking of schools was based on criteria that broadly covered the quality of the faculty, facilities and technology. The Princeton Review also factored in data it collected from the schools on their curriculum and career services.

The UIC Computer Science Department has been teaching “Video Game Design and Development” for over a decade, and in 2014 and 2015, it was taught by UIC alumnus and adjunct instructor of computer science, Mark Tulewicz, a game developer who previously worked at Incredible Technologies in the Chicagoland area, and is now a software developer at Amazon Game Studios. Tulewicz taught the course at both at UIC and, with co-instructor Kevin Cherry, at Louisiana State University (LSU) using video conferencing. Students were organized into virtual teams, and each team had to design and develop a video game as its class project, which were then judged in a formal setting. Students learned to balance real-world deadlines while working with classmates who were thousands of miles away. The course was meant to mimic the challenges faced by many startup indie game developers.

The Princeton Review has reported its game design program rankings annually since 2010. It has teamed up with PC Gamer, a monthly magazine published by Future plc, as its reporting partner on this project since 2013. PC Gamer’s May issue will have a feature on the ranking lists that details the schools’ unique programs, prominent professors, and alumni.

More information on the Princeton Review’s “Top 25 Graduate Schools to Study Game Design for 2016.”

This is not the first time Princeton Review acknowledged UIC’s video game course. In 2010, UIC was rated one of the top undergraduate game design programs in the U.S. and Canada. (Note that the course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.) Jason Leigh, then a UIC Computer Science professor, started this course and taught it for many years.