UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy is ranked second in nation

In downtown Orlando's arts district, in the shadows of the old Amway Arena and the Sheraton sits the No. 2 graduate-level video game development school in the country, according to The Princeton Review and GamePro Media.

The University of Central Florida's Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy placed second behind the University of Southern California.

This is the first time the Princeton Review has ever ranked graduate-level video game development schools.

"It's a great feeling in the world when what you do every day is recognized, especially when FIEA gets ranked No. 2," said alumnus Alex Howell. "The people, the teachers I went to school with, just the one thing you can always see is they have a passion for what they do. That's just the true success of the story."

Howell is one of 191 to graduate from the school since its inception in 2005. The inaugural class of FIEA consisted of 12 students.

Many of the graduates now work at heavy hitters in the gaming and entertainment industry companies, such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and BioWare.

FIEA graduates, earning an average of $50,852 a year, have worked on some of the most popular games including "Call of Duty: Black Ops," — the best-selling video game of all time — "Rock Band" and "Madden."

In December 2010, a few other FIEA alumni — Reid Bond, David Blosser, Donald Branch and David Verble — partnered up with the Orlando Science Center and put together a first-place showcase for the Interservice/ Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference, an annual conference held at the Orange County Convention Center.

The product was a game, dubbed Energize, made for the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge. The showcase promotes innovative, game-based solutions to education and training problems. Finalists in each of the three categories — student, government and business — were selected by a panel of serious game leaders from military, industry and academia.

Todd Deery, FIEA's communications and admissions director, said that students admitted into the graduate program have backgrounds in everything from illustration to fine art and from digital media to computer engineering, but the variety doesn't stop there.

"Undergrad degrees can range from theater, English and economics," Deery said.

Deery said that students admitted to the program are coming from other major Florida universities and other schools across the nation. FIEA's three main tracks include art, programming and production.

With FIEA receiving outside validation and national recognition, current students will be more likely to experience successes similar to Howell's.

"I'm a lead designer for "NCAA Football" and in charge of the ‘Road to Glory' mode," Howell said. "I did an internship with EA last fall and they hired me right after. They can tell that the FIEA kids are different than the other kids."

While there are other schools in Florida and across the country tailored toward interactive entertainment, Deery is confident in FIEA and that they stand out above the rest.

"It's our quality of faculty," Deery said. "We have people teaching with 10 to 15 years of industry knowledge and education."