| Ranking | School | City | Ranking by Region | National Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design | Milwaukee | #13 in Midwest | Unranked |
| #2 | University of Wisconsin – Stout | Stout | #16 in Midwest | Unranked |
The 2026 ranking, our fifteenth annual, of the top animation school programs in Wisconsin.
The criteria we used for the animation rankings consists, in no particular order, of the following: Academic reputation, Employment data, Admission selectivity, Depth and breadth of the program, Value as it relates to tuition and indebtedness, Graduation rate, and Retention rate. For an explanation of ranking criteria, click here.
Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) is Wisconsin’s only private, non-profit four-year college of visual art and design. The school houses an Illustration BFA program with an Animation track that focuses on interactive animation, 2D, 3D, video games, and virtual reality. Students also have the option to create an additional focus area through studio electives. The culminating experience for the program is a team animation project to be presented at the MIAD Thesis Exhibition. MIAD graduates go on to land positions at places such as Amazon MGM Studios, Google, The New Yorker, HBO, Nike, and Variety.
The following factors contribute to MIAD's position in Animation Career Review's 2026 animation school rankings.
Academic Peer Recognition: Strong Academic Peer Recognition (Tier 3)
Faculty Size: Mid-Sized Faculty (Tier 3)
Graduate Employment: Moderate Employment Outcomes (Tier 3)
Admissions Selectivity: Moderately Selective (Tier 3)
Average Net Cost: Moderate Average Net Cost (Tier 3)
Student Indebtedness: Substantial Student Debt (Tier 5)
Graduation Rate: Low Graduation Rate (Tier 5)
First-Year Retention Rate: Strong First-Year Student Retention (Tier 2)
Ranking Factor Tiers: Tier 1 represents the strongest performance and Tier 5 represents the weakest performance within each ranking factor.
University of Wisconsin – Stout (UW-Stout) has a Cooperative Education and Internship Program (CEIP) which highlights partnerships with Sony, Target, 3M, Forbes, and Thomson Reuters, among others. The only career-focused polytechnic university in Wisconsin and Minnesota, UW-Stout houses a School of Art and Design (SOAD), which has an Animation and Digital Media BFA program, and a Design MFA with an Animation and Digital Media focus. Programs are collaborative and cross-disciplinary with access to dedicated studios, labs, and galleries. The BFA culminates with an animation capstone. The culminating experience for the Design MFA is the Creative Thesis in Design with a public lecture or exhibition. With a 99% success rate, SOAD alumni go on to work at places such as DreamWorks, Disney, Activision, Shutterfly, Apple, Cisco, 3M, Target, iNet, Rouge Studios, and Fantasy Flight Games (FGG).
The following factors contribute to University of Wisconsin – Stout's position in Animation Career Review's 2026 animation school rankings.
Academic Peer Recognition: Strong Academic Peer Recognition (Tier 3)
Faculty Size: Small Faculty (Tier 4)
Graduate Employment: Moderate Employment Outcomes (Tier 3)
Admissions Selectivity: Accessible (Tier 4)
Average Net Cost: Low-mid Average Net Cost (Tier 2)
Student Indebtedness: Elevated Student debt (Tier 4)
Graduation Rate: Fair Graduation Rate (Tier 4)
First-Year Retention Rate: Moderate First-Year Student Retention (Tier 3)
Ranking Factor Tiers: Tier 1 represents the strongest performance and Tier 5 represents the weakest performance within each ranking factor.
