Being a supportive parent or caregiver of a unique kid is tough these days, especially if those gifted children are old enough to attend school. What should be a place of learning and safety can be a hostile environment filled with ignorance. The places that used to be safe have changed, but considering how they dominate the market, looking for alternatives can be frustrating.

Luckily, there are plenty of great schools out there that have comprehensive, semester-long wizarding programs for that blossoming magic user in everyone's family. Don't spend those lonely winter days worrying about their safety, send them to one of these equally great schools instead.

6 Nevermore Academy (Wednesday)

nevermore Cantacuzino Castle

This is where most of the story for the series Wednesday takes place, and the set for this location is a real place in Romania called Cantacuzino Castle. There's even a website that prospective students can check for more information, complete with the school crest and the motto.

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It's a tradition that parents who went to this school also send their children, and although the student body is made up of certain cliques like werewolves and gorgons, any gifted child is welcome in Nevermore. The character of Wednesday herself, other than coming from a long line of exceptional people and having a stoic visage, shows some signs of having psychic powers, but doesn't belong to a specific group.

5 Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters (X-Men)

xavier's school for gifted children

It's not magic, strictly speaking, but the school's purpose and the makeup of the student body are virtually the same. This is the school that Francis Xavier of the X-Men universe started as a refuge for gifted kids in a frightened world that didn't understand them. It's not just orphans or runaways that are welcome at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, but anyone who has some kind of mutant power, so having a tragic backstory isn't a prerequisite for enrollment.

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The school itself doesn't play a central role in any of the movies, but this location is also the headquarters of the X-Men, most of which are former students. Other than getting blown up or as the setting for a scene that involves Cerebro or the Blackbird, which Xavier keeps in the basement, the school only appears once in a while.

4 The School For Good And Evil

Professor Anemone in The School for Good and Evil

The recruitment process for this school from the movie of the same name might be a little rough, but that's the sort of thing that builds character. Besides, that's the price that most students are expected to pay for the opportunity to rub shoulders with famous heroes like the son of King Arthur or the daughter of the Sheriff of Nottingham.

It's a highly specialized environment, with the student body being split into two major disciplines right from the start. That means the villains, or Evil, versus the heroes, the Good. That could be an advantage as long as a student is confident in their educational goals, and the evaluation system used for class performance is deceptively simple.

3 The Emelius Brown Correspondence College Of Witchcraft (Bedknobs and Broomsticks)

Bedknobs And Broomsticks

Why does a wizarding school always have to be a boarding school? In fact, why does a student have to leave home at all, especially in this day and age? Of course, there's a distance-learning option for those who would prefer not to leave the house. In the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks, that's The Emelius Brown Correspondence College Of Witchcraft.

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The college was founded before the second world war, and an aspiring witch named Eglantine Price was the first to enroll. She intended to learn witchcraft to help with the war effort, and in a very small but important way, she succeeded. Officially, the college has been defunct since Emelius Brown joined the army, but the Star of Asteroth and the Substitutiary Locomotion spell are still out there somewhere.

2 Aretuza (The Witcher)

aretuza the witcher netflix

Aretuza has had a prestigious history if a tumultuous one, surviving the years when magic was punishable by death in Redania. Here's another school with a brutal recruitment process and equally strict policy when it comes to failures. Some of the students here come from high-born, well-paying families, while others are recruits that have shown some kind of propensity for magical talent. Other than that, the school accepts any student that can afford the tuition fee of 1,200 Novigradian crowns.

Yennefer of Vengerburg, one of the school's most famous graduates, was recruited after accidentally opening a travel portal to the school and sending herself through it. She was then sold by her stepfather, for the price of a pig, to the Arch-mistress Tissaia de Vries, and whether or not she had to pay the same tuition rate as her peers was never clarified.

1 Kamar Taj (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

kamar-taj marvel dr strange

Kamar Taj is more of a college or university than a preparatory school, accepting adult students who feel they have some gaps or incomplete links in their careers. Tuition is not an issue, as the Sorcerer Supreme will accept and teach anyone who shows promise. They provide room, board, and wizarding classes at no cost, so the place isn't exactly luxurious, but keeps the aesthetic of a humble but tidy monastery.

It's not just magic that's taught at this school for defense and offense, but also hand-to-hand fighting and other martial arts. It has one of the finest libraries of any learning or wizarding school, but in this kind of environment that can present as much danger as potential. Many books are locked away and only students with a deeper knowledge of the magical arts can read them.

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