History Main / ExtraNormalInstitute

** After the above school is destroyed, ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} opens the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Its students include a brood, and one of the teachers is the time travelling child of the namesake Jean Grey... and one of its later students ''is'' a time-travelling teenage Jean Grey. Welcome to the X-Men, it only gets stranger from here. Homework is basically training for adventuring, e.g jetpacking and snow ball fights. Students also include a galactic ProudWarriorRaceGuy, time travellers, and the front lawn is a mutant.
** [[Characters/MarvelComicsCyclops Cyclops]] opens the New Xavier Institute. It is located at the old Weapon X Facility, the place that gave Wolverine his unbreakable skeleton and [[AbsurdlySharpBlade sharp-ass claws]], and the students regularly go out on missions with the teachers. Said teachers consist of: a mutant revolutionary who shoots lasers from his eyes and is wanted for the murder of Charles Xavier, [[Characters/EmmaFrostWhiteQueen a mutant telepath who can turn her skin into diamond]] and wears {{Stripperiffic}} outfits, [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto a mutant Holocaust-survivor and terrorist who can control magnetic fields]] and a [[HeroicComedicSociopath sociopathic]] [[ComicBook/{{Magik}} mutant sorceress]] who regularly takes the students through limbo when teleporting and time travels.

[[folder:Theatre]]
* The [[PunnyName Monsterssori]] School in ''Theatre/AvenueQ'', is just a normal public school that happens to have monsters as pupils.
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* St Merlin's University from the ''Literature/MediochreQSethSeries'' is a university on the other side of the {{masquerade}}. Subjects include [[PostModernMagick technomancy]], [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dracology]] and [[TheUndead zontanecrology]].

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Both Knightcharm and Myth/TheScholomance are schools dedicated to teaching magic.

* St Merlin's University from the Literature/MediochreQSethSeries is a university on the other side of the {{masquerade}}. Subjects include [[PostModernMagick technomancy]], [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dracology]] and [[TheUndead zontanecrology]].

^^* In ''Literature/DragonSlayersAcademy'', the school for which the series is named.

* Not to speak for all religious schools, but at some universities, the extranormal is more with the students than with how the institute is run. Some of the kids come from extremely sheltered backgrounds, and for them the very prospect of living in the dorm or going to the cafeteria by themselves is terrifying; some of the others are MK (missionary's kids) and come from various jungles, islands, and so forth and find Los Angeles as a whole basically stifling (expect a lot of DoesNotLikeShoes). Throw in a few cases of visions or demonic possession, and this place probably qualifies.

* Kunpuu High School in ''LightNovel/{{Kanokon}}'' turns out to be, basically, a boarding-school for demons and spirits who find it hard to fit into human society -- as such, several dozen spirits and demons are liberally mixed with the human students, and have to stay there until they learn how to maintain the {{masquerade}}. Something tells us that Chizuru will be stuck there for a while...

* ''EVERYONE'' at ''[[Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi Mahora Academy]]'' (or at least MANY) seems to be abnormal in some way. You have vampires, ninjas, time-travelling Martians from the future, robots, mad scientists, mages, [[spoiler:princesses]], ghosts.... And that's not even touching the tip of the iceberg. And yet, somehow the majority of the student body seem to be {{Muggles}}.
** Muggles who think it's merely an [[ElaborateUniversityHigh unusually large]] normal school, no less.

* ''Film/RealGenius''' "[[{{Expy}} Pacific Tech]]".

* In ''Literature/DragonSlayersAcademy'', the school for which the series is named.

* The Evil Academy from ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice''.

* [[http://windy999.deviantart.com/art/Pirate-Timetable-47108725 "The Bottle of Ruin"]] Academy for Young {{Pirate}}s.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends''.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' has The Yamanouchi Ninja School.
* ''Toys/MonsterHigh''
* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity''
* The eponymous ''WesternAnimation/RegalAcademy''

* Alfea the school for fairies in ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub''.

* Sci-fi, fantasy, anime, and comicbook conventions. Outsiders see a bunch of strange people in strange garb doing strange things, but to people inside the fandom it's all perfectly normal.
** Ditto for ren faires.
* The UsefulNotes/SocietyForCreativeAnachronism

* Brown College UVA.
* The University of Chicago goes as far as to invoke this trope, embracing unashamed expressions of nerdiness. This is helped by how the college's gothic architecture resembles [[Franchise/HarryPotter a certain wizard school]]. One of the best-selling T-shirts in the bookstore says, "I was waitlisted at Hogwarts."

* This also applies to art schools.

* Any functioning studio facility, creature shop, props workshop or film school tends to be a bit like this trope -- even when there's ''not'' a sci-fi or fantasy project in production.

* Somewhat similar to the X-Men example below, ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has Academy City. It has hundreds, if not thousands of schools. 80% of the population are students, over 60% of which are [[PsychicPowers espers]]. Teaching them how to use their abilities to their fullest potential is ''part of the local curriculum''. No one finds it unusual; in fact, the whole world knows about it and don't particularly care.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Both Knightcharm and the Scholomance are schools dedicated to teaching magic.

Often, stories in such a setting will be in a genre ([=besides/in addition to=] the obvious [=sf/fantasy=]) in which the protagonists spend a lot of time exploring the details of the setting, such as School Story, MedicalDrama, or PoliceProcedural. Of course, the contrast with the mundane aspects of that genre helps the bizarre details of the setting to stand out even further.

The Extranormal Institute is a strange and/or wonderful place where bizarre is the new normal. Students with unusual abilities get training and courses from instructors who may have extranormal powers themselves and/or from scientific experts on extranormal powers, It makes good internal sense (as opposed to farce played for laughs) and is genuinely functional (as opposed to a CrapsackWorld or the like), but has a very high weirdness level as real people deal with fantastical things.

Such a location is usually an important part of the attraction of whatever series it's featured in. {{Naive Newcomer}}s (perhaps [[StrangerInAStrangeSchool Strangers In A Strange School]]) can be expected to drop their eyes. The regulars may well be aware of their madhouse status and even proud of it. The school building is often a specialized facility designed to permit those with extranormal powers to test them out. To reduce scrutiny from prying outsiders, the school may be set in a remote location and parts may be hidden underground.

The Extranormal Institute is a strange and/or wonderful place where bizarre is the new normal. It makes good internal sense (as opposed to farce played for laughs) and is genuinely functional (as opposed to a CrapsackWorld or the like), but has a very high weirdness level as real people deal with fantastical things.

Such a location is usually an important part of the attraction of whatever series it's featured in. {{Naive Newcomer}}s (perhaps [[StrangerInAStrangeSchool Strangers In A Strange School]]) can be expected to drop their eyes. The regulars may well be aware of their madhouse status and even proud of it.

* This can also be said about any school with a large, well-established game of ''LARP/HumansVsZombies''. For students at these schools, discussions of how to avoid zombies on the way to class, people sprinting across the quad shooting Nerf darts at people chasing them, or seeing forty people suddenly siege a dorm are quite normal.

Contrast with MundaneFantastic and WorldOfWeirdness, where the entire world is like this (at least for the protagonists). Not to be confused with a SchoolForScheming, which appears to be this but is actually led by malevolent individuals or groups planning to exploit or manipulate the students.

* ''Fanfic/TrollCops'' gives us SEER, the [[FunWithAcronyms Society for the Elevation of Ectotechnological Research]], a sort of Wiki/SCPFoundation pastiche led by Rose Lalonde and including most of the city's active vigilante superheroes.

* ''Fanfic/RoyalHeights'' entirely revolves around the school in the title itself, Royal Heights Academy, a school within the dimension Utopia traveled to by portal creating jets that is entirely riffed with TechnologyPorn and houses a multitude of students of differing species from multiple dimensions.

** In other words, Gunnerkrigg Court supports technology and freely uses it, while it tries to deny or at least hide things that it cannot explain with technology. A major theme in ''Gunnerkrigg Court'' is the [[MagicVersusScience conflict]] between technology in the court and the unexplainable, etheric magic in the forest beyond the court.

* [[ComicBook/AtomicRobo Tesladyne Industries]] is a workplace that specializes in Action Science, including such fields as Imaginary Physics and Advanced [Other] (it's so revolutionary it doesn't have a name yet). Giant bugs and extra-universal incursions are the order of the day. Vampire attacks are treated with as much concern (but much less surprise) than a fire in a normal office compound, and the receptionist keeps a shotgun and helmet under his desk just in case.

* The Soviet film ''Sorcerers'' is loosely based on the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers novel ''Literature/MondayBeginsOnSaturday'' (see below). Ivan Puhov's fiancée Alyona (unbeknownst to him) works as a witch at the Scientific Universal Institute of Extraordinary Services, a subsidiary of the Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry from the novel. Thanks to a rival at the institute, Alyona is cursed by the jealous director of the institute (who thinks that her boyfriend is cheating on her with the young witch) to be a cold-blooded bitch, who doesn't care about anyone. It's up to Ivan and a pair of magic wood masters from the institute to lift the curse.

* The first book in ''Literature/TheSolomonCode'' series is technically a school for half-angel teens, though in reality it's a prison camp where the boys are barely taught anything.

* Literature/NowhereIslandUniversity is a mix of a bunch of sub-types, due to its separate schools. Some, like the [[MilitarySchool Academy of Military Science]] and [[SpySchool Shadowhaven]] specialize in turning out Elite Mooks. However, most of the other schools focus on a specific area of technology (medicine, computers, engineering, etc.) and have taken the university years ahead of the rest of the world technologically.

* The forum-based RPG Roleplay/{{Shadowside}} not only covers the basis of this, but almost all of the subtropes are at least partially true of it.
* Hyakuji High School, the eponymous high school from Roleplay/ShinHyakujiHighSchool forum-based RPG covers a variety of subtropes related to this concept.

* The eponymous ''WesternAnimation/RegalAcademy''

* Roleplay/SigilAcademy is another forum-based RPG that's one of these, also covering a variety of subtropes but mostly SuperheroSchool.

* The Society for Creative Anachronism.

* In Marvel's ComicBook/TheNewUniverse, ''ComicBook/DP7'' introduced a clinic for people developing paranormal powers as a result of [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent the White Event]].
** To a lesser extent, the Ballad Institute from ''Nightmask'' also qualified.

* AcademyOfAdventure (the only Extranormal School trope not defined by what it teaches)
* AcademyOfEvil
* AllGhoulsSchool
* HeroAcademy
* NinjaSchool
* RoyalSchool
* SpySchool
* SuperheroSchool
* WizardingSchool