The 15 Best Boarding Schools In TV and Movies

Movies and television shows made for a young adult audience always have a healthy dose of angst and drama. But stories set in boarding schools add an extra layer of shade and intricate social hierarchies. They are also often the backdrop for exciting paranormal plotlines. Boarding school stories always pull in an audience.

Not all boarding schools on screen include monsters and magic — but that doesn’t make them boring. On-screen boarding schools give audiences a taste of dorm life among growing teenagers who are finding their way through a transitory time in their lives. Here are some of the best boarding schools in TV and movies.

Updated on March 23rd, 2021 by Kristen Palamara: Boarding schools are portrayed differently throughout media. They’re either as an almost unimaginable oasis for young, independent teens, a nightmare punishment — at least initially — or simply a mundane existence that can slowly turn into a setting where life-long friends are made. Some students are sent to boarding schools for a great opportunity, some for magical and supernatural reasons, and others were initially sent to boarding school as a consequence for acting out. No matter the category these plots about boarding school fall into, these are some of the best and most compelling boarding schools depicted in movies and on television.

15 Pacific Coast Academy (Zoey 101)

Pacific Coast Academy was a dream school for anyone who grew up watching Zoey 101. PCA had everything and it was always stylish whether the characters were in the dining halls, the huge dorm rooms, or the on-campus restaurants that even included a sushi bar.

On top of the great amenities on campus, there was also a core group of friends that every viewer wanted to be a part of.

14 Welton Academy (Dead Poets Society)

Welton Academy starts off as a boring boarding school that the main characters don’t enjoy attending because of its strict policies. They’re all dedicated to their studies because they know it would disappoint their parents and affect their future, but everything changes when their new teacher Mr. Keating arrives.

Every teacher wants to be Robin Williams, and every student wants a teacher like him, especially at the otherwise perfectly normal yet dull, restrictive, and secluded Welton Academy.

13 Rushmore Academy (Rushmore)

Rushmore is a movie by Wes Anderson that centers on a gifted and ambitious student who attends Rushmore Academy and quickly falls for a first-grade teacher who teaches at the prep school.

The academy has the typical aesthetic that Wes Anderson movies are known for and would be a delight for anyone to attend.

12 Sheldon R. Weinberg Academy (Up the Academy)

Up the Academy is a little-known 1980s comedy from Mad TV about a group of trouble makers who become friends when they’re sent to a boarding school that’s similar to a military school. The leadership is awful and strict, but the group bonds over it and eventually decides to fight back against authority.

While Sheldon R. Weinberg Academy doesn’t start off as a fun boarding school, the group makes it into an exciting place to learn and play sports.

11 Madison Preparatory School (Major Payne)

Major Payne portrays a military type of boarding school in a comedy movie setting called Madison Preparatory School. The movie follows Major Payne becoming an ROTC instructor for a boarding school after he’s honorably discharged from the Marines and can’t adjust to civilian life.

The school begins with a tough environment but the students quickly rebel and there’s a hilarious prank war between Major Payne and his students that eventually leads to the whole team bonding and making the school more of a place where misfit students and instructors can connect.

10 St. Vladimir’s Academy (Vampire Academy)

Based on the book of the same name, Vampire Academy takes place at a paranormal boarding school filled with vampire guardians in training. The Moroi are peaceful vampires who live a mortal life, and the dhampirs are half-human, half-vampire guardians.

The dhampirs take classes like Advanced Guardian Combat Techniques, Weight Training and Conditioning, and Basics of Elemental Control to learn to guard the Moroi against the immortal vampires, Strigoi. But they still take the time to study poetry, calculus, and creative writing like normal students. They have to fit into the real world, after all.

9 Greenhouse Academy (Greenhouse Academy)

Made up of two competing houses, the Greenhouse Academy from the titular Netflix series is an elite boarding school that attracts intelligent and gifted students who hope for a bright future. Brother and sister Hayley and Alex Woods attend in hopes of following in their astronaut mother’s footsteps after her passing.

But when the two houses come across a conspiracy to destroy the world, it’s up to the students of Greenhouse to save it. How many schools actually challenge their students to become heroes?

8 Illyria High School (She’s The Man)

She’s the Man gave the audience a boarding school full of clueless teachers and staff that would make getting away with anything easy as pie. Viola (Amanda Bynes) attended Illyria High School disguised as her fraternal twin brother Sebastian, and no one noticed.

It was also a treat to see a high school movie set around a sport that wasn’t football. Illyria’s focus on soccer was a refreshing change of pace in a teen movie about sports. The best part of the school, though, was when the tough-as-nails soccer coach stated they didn’t discriminate based on gender.

7 Spenser Academy (The Covenant)

The Sons of Ipswich, the descendants of Massachusetts witches, attend Spenser Academy under the guise of competitive student swimmers. Their powers and uncanny good looks make them the kings of the school, until the fifth Son of Ipswich, descended from the banished ancestor, makes a reappearance.

A boarding school that never suspects generations of a witch coven walking its halls and lets its students have magical battles on the grounds makes for the most fun environment. Plus, any school with Sebastian Stan is automatically the best.

6 The Umbrella Academy (The Umbrella Academy)

The Netflix adaptation of the comic book of the same name features a dysfunctional superhero family, all adopted as children and raised to save the world. But things don’t pan out, and they disband. When their adoptive father, Sir Reginald, is mysteriously killed, the surviving members of the original academy join forces to solve the murder.

They find one of the children that Sir Reginald never adopted and was rejected by the Academy is the culprit trying to jumpstart an apocalypse. The Umbrella Academy sure knew when to turn away problematic students.

5 King’s Dominion Atelier of the Deadly Arts (Deadly Class)

The King’s Dominion is a boarding school established to teach promising young assassins from around the world. The Deadly Class academy is the ultimate school that teaches its students to survive the most vicious situations. The curriculum challenges them and turns them into the ultimate killing machines.

Perhaps it’s a harsh lesson, but at least the students of King’s Dominion will never have anyone get the best of them. Skills like sword-fighting, martial arts, and tactical battle are good forms of study.

4 The Anubis (House of Anubis)

The Nickelodeon show House of Anubis features a boarding school that’s basically a perpetual escape room. The students must solve puzzles and unlock the mysteries of the academy to make it through the average day. With some magic and ancient Egyptian curses thrown in, the Anubis sounds like one of the most fun schools to attend.

Evading a suspicious groundskeeper that puts them on lockdown when they begin their investigation of a missing student adds the final twist to a fantastic plot. The Anubis is basically a dream for The Mummy fans.

3 Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters (X-Men)

The Marvel universe created one of the coolest boarding schools ever with the academy meant to train future X-Men. Housing young mutants and teaching them to hone their powers makes Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters a superhero fan’s dream.

More than that, it showed scared kids they had a place to belong, even if the world outside those walls wasn’t always kind to them. Xavier’s School was more than a boarding school; it was a home and a family to the mutants. Plus, how many schools let their students get away with destroying property?

2 Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted (The Vampire Diaries)

Alaric Saltzman took a page out of Charles Xavier’s book when he turned the old Salvatore boarding house into a school. He established it for kids like his twin daughters, Josie and Lizzie, who are siphoning witches. But the school took in more than just witches.

It took in vampires, werewolves, and hybrids, or tribrids in the case of Hope Mikaelson. Alaric and Caroline Forbes hoped to teach supernatural children to control their powers and become healthy members of society so that they won’t abuse their abilities.

1 Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Harry Potter)

Harry Potter and his friends were always in mortal peril at Hogwarts, but they had fun throughout it all. Every day they took classes like Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. They may have complained about their studies like any normal student, but it sure beats taking geometry or biology.

For fans of the spooky, the school also offered an array of ghosts and mysteries. Ask any Muggle, and they’d say they’d rather attend Hogwarts than regular school any day. It might be dangerous, but the magic would make it worthwhile.

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