Urban Arts’ Class of 2026 Achieves 100% College Acceptance Rate, Bringing Cumulative Scholarship Total to $71 Million Since 2020
A group of teenagers from low-income communities across New York City has earned $25 million in college scholarships this year, not through a traditional academic pipeline, but through video games.
These students are not outliers. Urban Arts, the national nonprofit that teaches video game design as a pathway to college and career, announced that its Class of 2026 has achieved a 100% college acceptance rate. This year’s results bring Urban Arts’ cumulative scholarship total to more than $71 million. All instruction and college access services are provided free of charge to students and their families.
At the Urban Arts Game Academy, students build original games, creating narrative, music, animation; pitch their work to industry professionals for real-world feedback, learning entrepreneurship, iteration, teamwork; and graduate with portfolios, credentials, and career networks that most of their peers, at any income level, don’t have.