ETSU ranked highly in game design, animation by Animation Career Review
JOHNSON CITY (Aug. 6, 2021) — East Tennessee State University has been ranked No. 1 in Tennessee as the top school for game design, as well as animation. It is also positioned among the Top 20 Game Design and Animation Colleges in the South, ranking No. 12 for its animation program and No. 17 for game design. Both concentrations are part of the ETSU College of Business and Technology digital media program.
For the Top 20 rankings, determined since 2011 by the online resource Animation Career Review, ETSU was chosen from colleges and universities throughout Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas.
“This honor comes at an ideal time, just as our new master of fine arts in digital media welcomes its first graduate students this fall,” said department chair Marty Fitzgerald. “Our students have the opportunity to equip themselves in digital media by choosing from a number of career paths, including animation and game development and this establishes what we already know, that we offer a top-notch program for students of digital media. Our graduates have gone on to work on notable creative properties that include ‘Borderlands,’ ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier,’ ‘Intergalactic Pizza Delivery Guy,’ ‘Thor Ragnarok,’ ‘Halo,’ ‘RWBY,’ ‘Crucible,’ and ‘Justice League.’ We’re very proud of that, and with these rankings.”
The ETSU Digital Media Department offers a bachelor of science in digital media with concentrations in digital animation, digital game design, digital visualization, and visual effects. There is also a digital media minor for students to gain broad exposure in each of those areas. The program also recently unveiled Tennessee’s first master of fine arts degree in digital media.
In addition, a new articulation agreement recently announced between ETSU and Walters State Community College allows students to transfer directly from Walters State’s new digital media major into ETSU’s digital media program with advanced standing.
Ranking criteria consists of academic reputation, admission selectivity, depth and breadth of the program faculty, value as it relates to tuition and indebtedness, graduation rate, geographic location, and employment data.
For more information about the ETSU Digital Media program, visit ETSUDigitalMedia.com or contact Fitzgerald at fitzgeraldm1@etsu.edu or 423-439-5110. More about ranking criteria is available at animationcareerreview.com/background-info-and-criteria-college-rankings.