Background Info and Criteria for College Rankings

Background

We started publishing regional and national rankings in 2012 in response to myriad emails from aspiring animators and game designers asking us what the best schools were in the US, a given State, or in a particular area of the country. We consider every degree-granting school of which we are aware, with the exception of two-year community colleges. In some cases we will include non-degree granting schools, when the program’s quality merits inclusion. Our end goal is to provide students and their parents access to ample information so they can make an informed decision about the school they choose to attend and the program they pursue.

Criteria and Methodology

Our rankings are driven primarily by aggregated academic peer assessments, which serve as a broad measure of how animation programs are perceived by those most familiar with the field. By collecting and synthesizing input from a wide range of institutions, we aim to capture a consensus view of program strength that reflects both reputation and sustained performance over time. We call this Academic Peer Recognition

This peer-based signal is then validated through graduate employment outcomes, using third-party data to assess how successfully graduates move into professional animation-related roles. This helps ground the rankings in real-world results, ensuring that programs are not only well regarded, but also effective in preparing students for careers in the industry.

Finally, these factors are contextualized by program scale and institutional performance metrics, such as admission selectivity, faculty size, retention rates (percentage of students who return after 1 year), graduation rates, average net cost of attendance, and student indebtedness (median debt). While some of this data is only available at the institutional level, it provides a consistent framework for comparing programs across a diverse range of schools.

Taken together, this multi-layered approach allows us to balance perception, outcomes, and structural context to produce rankings that are both comprehensive and comparable across institutions.

Our rankings categories are below. For each, schools are grouped into 5 tiers. It is important to note that each school is scored independently, meaning there is a scoring range within each tier, as opposed to a single score per tier assigned to a school. These group labels are for descriptive purposes only, to better help prospective students, their parents, and school representatives understand the rankings.

Academic Peer Recognition
Elite Recognition by Academic Peers (Tier 1)
Excellent Recognition by Academic Peers (Tier 2)
Strong Recognition by Academic Peers (Tier 3)
Moderate Recognition by Academic Peers (Tier 4)
Modest Recognition by Academic Peers (Tier 5)

Information Source - Surveys. During the school year we reach out via email to every school under consideration requesting information about their specific program, as well as their perspective regarding which other school programs they considered to be the most impressive, both nationally and regionally. This data informs the Academic Peer Recognition part of rankings criteria.

Employment Outcomes
Exceptional Employment Outcomes (Tier 1)
Strong Employment Outcomes (Tier 2)
Moderate Employment Outcomes (Tier 3)
Fair Employment Outcomes (Tier 4)
Limited Employment Outcomes (Tier 5)

Information Source - We pay for access to LinkedIn to obtain employment data.

Admission Selectivity
Highly Selective (Tier 1)
Selective (Tier 2)
Moderately Selective (Tier 3)
Accessible (Tier 4)
Highly Accessible (Tier 5)

Information Source - US Department of Education College Scorecard

Average Net Cost
Minimal Average Net Cost (Tier 1)
Low-mid Average Net Cost (Tier 2)
Moderate Average Net Cost (Tier 3)
Elevated Average Net Cost (Tier 4)
Substantial Average Net Cost (Tier 5)

Information Source - US Department of Education College Scorecard

Student Indebtedness (Median Debt)
Minimal Student Debt (Tier 1)
Low Student Debt (Tier 2)
Moderate Student Debt (Tier 3)
Elevated Student debt (Tier 4)
Substantial Student Debt (Tier 5)

Information Source - US Department of Education College Scorecard

Student Retention After 1 Year
Exceptional Student Retention After 1 Year (Tier 1)
Strong Student Retention After 1 Year (Tier 2)
Moderate Student Retention After 1 Year (Tier 3)
Fair Student Retention After 1 Year (Tier 4)
Low Student Retention After 1 Year (Tier 5)

Information Source - US Department of Education College Scorecard

Graduation Rates
Exceptional Graduation Rate (Tier 1)
Strong Graduation Rate (Tier 2)
Moderate Graduation Rate (Tier 3)
Fair Graduation Rate (Tier 4)
Low Graduation Rate (Tier 5)

Information Source - US Department of Education College Scorecard

Faculty Size
Expansive Faculty (Tier 1)
Large Faculty (Tier 2)
Mid-Sized Faculty (Tier 3)
Small Faculty (Tier 4)
Compact Faculty (Tier 5)

Information Source - This information is obtained from the college or university web site.

Animation School Rankings
Rankings published since 2012
Colleges/Schools Considered: 207
School surveys were emailed in September, 2025