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GGL's First Annual Top Gaming Colleges Survey
Posted by Mahmood Ali on August 30, 2006
The Schools
Now that we've established the rules, let's plunge right into the rankings.
#10 - Full Sail Real World Education - Orlando, FloridaPopulation - 5,000
Geographical Location
Student Organizations N/A
Tournaments and LANs
Tech-friendliness
Internet Connection N/A (no dorms)
Curriculum
Welcome to the campus that never sleeps. At Full Sail Real World education, classes are held 24/7 and students partake in a rigorous work schedule to enter the game, music or film industries. The institution prizes ability over academics -- the only real admissions requirements for some of its programs are a GED or high school diploma -- and emphasizes the skills that will get you a job in the real world (hence the name). Don't get too excited, though -- when we say "rigorous schedule," we mean it. All of Full Sail's degrees are accelerated, so you get a Bachelor's degree in one-and-a-half years. And since it's a small school, Full Sail has no dormitories.
While you're there, you'll be working with a multitude of creative types and a lot of gamers who want to make their own entertainment. Toward the end of your tenure, you can attend Otronicon, one of the Southeast's largest gatherings of gamers and game industry professionals. Once a year, Full Sail sponsors a mini-E3 in Orlando attended by over 16,000 people. At Otronicon, you'll be able to play at over a hundred different game stations. But the highlight of the ten-day event definitely has to be the Video Game Championships. Players compete in 'Halo 2' and a multitude of other games for cash and hardware prizes. The finals take place on an eight-story screen in the Orlando Science Center auditorium.
After all that, there's a good chance of getting a job you really want. Recent graduates of Full Sail have gone on to work at Electronic Arts and Raven Software, just to name a few of the prestigious placements.
#9 University of Michigan, Dearborn Campus - Dearborn, MichiganPopulation - 8,500
Geographical Location
Student Organizations
Tournaments and LANs
Tech-friendliness (no dorms/resnet, but hosts LANs)
Internet Connection N/A (no dorms)
Curriculum (elective courses at the graduate and undergraduate level, one graduate certificate)
The University of Michigan's Dearborn campus is sparsely populated, often bitterly cold and has no dorms. So why is it on this list?
Simple: MPCon. UMN-Dearborn hosts one of the largest LAN parties in the region, an event that has been going on for seven years. Approximately once a year, 100 to 250 gamers converge on Mary and Arthur Kochoff Hall on the UMN campus to play 'World of Warcraft' and exchange gunfire in 'Counter-Strike,' among other games. The best part is that MPCon is a fundraiser for the Association for Computing Machinery at Dearborn. Any university that hosts LAN parties is cool, in our book.
At UMN, you'll also be able to take a few elective courses in game design. But this isn't a serious school for that field of study.
#8 University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus - Minneapolis, MinnesotaPopulation - 41,000 (Dorm population - 9000)
Geographical location
Student Organizations
Tournaments / LANs
Tech-friendliness
Internet Connection
Curriculum
With a large student body (41,000) and a dorm population that hovers around 9,000, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus is one of the better places to find frags. In fact, the Association for Computing Machinery on campus lets you do just that, holding monthly LAN parties where you can get your frag on. There's also free pizza!
At the dorms, you'll find your room supplied with a 10mbit ethernet connection and a ResNet compatible with your Xbox or (heaven forbid) PS2 for online gaming. There's also a treat for those that hope to live off-campus: the university, in conjunction with Qwest, offers subsidized DSL connections for interested students and faculty. DSL with download speeds of 7 megabits (and 896k upload) is available for $38 plus tax per month. If you're cheap, you can get 256/256 DSL for $13 a month.
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Comments
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bossk
| #1 Posted Aug 30, 2006 @ 10:31 pm Thats so awesome, glad to see that our MPCon event put UMD on the list :) |
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Missy
| #2 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 2:54 am they all play CS, no quake :( |
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thepns
| #3 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 3:28 am RIT does have some curriculum for gaming most of it involves Professor Andy Phelps here's his website andysgi.rit.edu/andyworld10/courses/archives/undergrad/index.php . One club is even doing a Game Building Contest griffin.se.rit.edu/projects/gamedevelopment |
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Supermike
| #4 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 3:33 am Weak Sauce, leaving out Worcester Polytech. Shame. Check out wpi.edu, we have a new Video Game Design major: www.wpi.edu/Academics/Majors/IMGD/ AND a hugely popular Game Development Club: www.gdc.wpi.edu/ AND tons of geeks AND a wicked fast internet connection: www.wpi.edu/Academics/CCC/Netops/Network/ |
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herky
| #5 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 10:50 am This is probably the most ridiculous survey I have ever seen. The majority of the categories are BS, and the one that actually matters (curriculum) should be weighted much more than the other retarded ones. Yeah... hopefully no one will look at this and actually rank them by this. |
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mccp
| #6 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 10:52 am I'm a brother at GT Psi Upsilon (mentioned in the article). I assure you, more of us play quake-based games than CS. Quake 2 is popular, as well as Quake 3 Rocket Arena, and RTCW:Enemy Territory. We tend to stick with older games on the whole, Total Anihilation is usually the crux of our LAN parties, starcraft usually gets some big attraction, though newer games like AvP2 or HL2 usually make an apperance. around the house, people mostly stick to old console games. |
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mahmood
| #7 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 11:38 am #4, thanks for the info. #5, criticism is welcome but you missed the point. game design was a lesser factor than any of the other factors. |
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mahmood
| #8 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 11:38 am #4, thanks for the info. #5, criticism is welcome but you missed the point. game design was a lesser factor than any of the other factors. |
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williamstome
| #9 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 12:03 pm Hmmm RIT #3? <rant> I'd tend to disagree. The campus is horribly ugly. It is also the "community college of tech schools." I don't care how many LANs they have if I'm not getting a good EDUCATION (being the reason for going to college in the first place) If you want a good education, go to a slighlty techy school so you're still getting a well rounded education. DON'T go to a school where they only focus on technology. </rant> |
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djdiggydiggy
| #10 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 12:24 pm Nice read. Can't disagree with the Texas posting, because it really is a great gaming community. I only have a bone to pick with you on the subject of SMU in Dallas. Similar advantages to UT (great connection, close proximity to gaming events, hardcore groups of gamers), smaller student body, but a dedicated graduate program for video game rendering and programming that's at the top of the nation. Kinda hard to overlook that, but you did. It at least belongs in the Top 10, if not in the Top 3. You have schools that are "developing" curriculum pertaining to video game programming, but you leave off one of the leaders in the category with a program that is already developed and at the top of its field. |
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adamw
| #11 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 12:36 pm williamstome i couldnt disagree with you more. you have apparently have never seen or been to rit or seen or read any of the publication rit has put out. most of that information you probably got from a bad college rating magazine. rit has an emphasis on technology related fields such as information technology and engineering but that is only 3 of the 8 colleges that make up the school. the college of art is bigger then the college of information technology. and the "community college of tech schools" is a GROSS misinterpretation of the school. RIT has some of the best undergraduate programs in computer and electrical fields in the country. RIT was to my knowledge the first to offer a bachlors in Software engineering. RIT was also on the top Master's granting schools in the northeast by the US News and World report. I personally go to RIT, I major in computer engineering and minor in music. hows that for rounded? and by the way RIT does offer game development classes in their Software Engineering department to my knowledge. |
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djWHEAT
| #12 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 12:38 pm I miss college connects :) |
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