NJIT Is No. 1 in New Jersey to Study Game Design, Top 20 in the East

NJIT has been ranked the top school in New Jersey for students to study game design, according to Animation Career Review. NJIT also reached No. 20 for schools in the East.

Housed within the Hiller College of Architecture and Design (HCAD) and Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC), NJIT’s game development program blends digital design and information technology curricula to offer students access to faculty and resources that cross disciplinary boundaries and cultivate innovation and creativity.

Since 2013, Animation Career Review has published an annual game design ranking that considers academic reputation, employment data, admission selectivity, depth of the offerings, return on investment and graduation rate.

NJIT is a Top 50 Undergraduate Game Design School in the U.S. - The Princeton Review

“NJIT offers a complete game design experience, whether it’s creating characters or game art, or writing the code that makes the games work, we make it possible to fully embrace the entire game development framework,” said John Cays, associate dean for Academic Affairs in HCAD and interim director of its School of Art + Design. 

The game development program at NJIT launched in 2003 as part of the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, specifically for students interested in programming and developing gaming experiences. In 2008, HCAD launched its digital design program, offering budding developers and programmers a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Design, with a focus on game design, art and aesthetics. Over the past decade, NJIT has evolved into a community of designers and developers, artists and programmers, scientists and industry partners — all working together to shape the future of games and gaming technologies. 

“This ranking is a recognition of the strong collaborative program we have between digital design in the School of Art + Design and information technology in the Department of Informatics,” said Marc Sequeira, associate director of the Machine Intelligence and XR Research (MIXR) Lab in YWCC.

The gaming community has blossomed at NJIT. The university has played host as a site for the Global Game Jam for 12 straight years, launched the MIXR Lab for augmented- and virtual-reality development and has seen sustained growth in applications, enrollment and graduation of students in the game development fields. 

In addition, NJIT’s competitive esports community supports eight Division I teams and five Division II teams. Check out their page in the Highlander Hub for more information.