NYU’s Game Center earned the top spot on the 2023 graduate and undergraduate rankings

Students play a video game while others watch at a video game showcase held in Brooklyn in 2022.
Players at 2022's No Quarter, an annual showcase of video games hosted by the Game Center.

New York University’s Game Center has been named the top school for game design by The Princeton Review, which released its 2023 rankings today.

NYU topped the educational service’s 14th annual rankings of the best schools in both undergraduate and graduate categories. The rankings are based on a survey of 150 institutions. The majority are in the United States, with two in Canada and seven from around the world.

"It's tremendously gratifying to have the NYU Game Center recognized by The Princeton Review, especially because these rankings reflect the hard work and dedication of our students and alumni, the accolades won by the work that they've launched and the careers that they're forging,” said Naomi Clark, chair of the department. “We're excited to have reached the top rank for both our graduate program, where our tenth cohort of Master's students is soon to graduate, and our Bachelor's program, where we're seeing record numbers of new alumni publishing games and finding game industry jobs after graduation.”

The Princeton Review’s 50-question survey covers academics, faculty, technology and career prospects. It names the top 50 schools for undergraduates and the top 25 for graduate students. Information about its methodology is available on its website.

"We recommend these schools as outstanding choices for students considering a career in the exciting field of game design,” said Rob Franek, The Princeton Review's Editor-in-Chief. "Their programs and faculties are first-rate. Their facilities are state-of-the-art. And their alumni include many of the game design industry’s most successful artists, designers, developers, and entrepreneurs.”

NYU’s Game Center’s programs were ranked second last year.

The Princeton Review's 2023 top five schools for undergraduates are NYU, University of Southern California, Rochester Institute of Technology, Clark University (Worcester, MA), and DigiPen Institute of Technology (Redmond, WA).

The top five graduate programs are NYU, University of Central Florida (Orlando), Southern Methodist University (Dallas), Rochester Institute of Technology, and University of Southern California.

Based in Brooklyn, the NYU Game Center is the Department of Game Design at the Tisch School of the Arts. It is dedicated to the exploration of games as a cultural form and to game design as a creative practice. The center’s mission is to educate the next generation of designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and critics and to advance the field of game design by creating a place for scholarship and groundbreaking work.

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