[Mahlkihl]

Do magic schools or colleges exist?

Do regular colleges exist?

[baronspam]

Hermetic magic in the shadow run universe is studied in universities, and if you are awakened there are university programs that teach the theory and practice of magic.  It is not the only way to learn magic, private apprenticeships exist, and some traditions are more likely to have a student or a small group of students learn privately from a teacher.  But overall, yes, you can got to college in shadowrun and get a university degree in magic.

Regular colleges and universities certainly exist.  That is where the scientists, doctors, and engineers who run all this wiz technology come from.   It is also where the children of the corporate wealthy can go to get business degrees.  There are even some folks who get degrees in liberal or fine arts.  In addition, there are probably trade schools/community colleges that teach practical professions.  The world still needs dental hygienists, electronics repair techs, book keepers, etc.  Overall it probably is the children of middle life style and up that get an education.  Low life style folks end up in a semi-skilled factory job or as a skill wire worker, or stuck in a retail job folding t-shirts at kong-walmart.

[Crimsondude]

Do magic schools or colleges exist?

Many major universities and larger colleges have magic programs. Like all things, there is a very steep curve from average to the topmost tiers.

If you want to get an impression of how many there would be, consider that the Awakened make up 1% of the population (Of course that seems to fluctuate as to whether it means those with potential or those actually practicing), and mundanes can also study magic theory. This roughly the same percentage of lawyers in the U.S. So a quick shorthand would be to assume that any university with a law school has a thaumaturgy school as well. Of course, there is no Fuchi University IRL. But even then most of their people didn't go to FU. Corps pay a lot of money subsidizing programs they need like thaumaturgy and Matrix programming/design.


The terminal degree for magicians is a Doctorate of Thaumaturgy (Th.D). Almost all university programs are Hermetic-centered, at least historically even with the advent of Universal Magic Theory.

The first program to grant Th.Ds was UCLA, which remains one of the top programs in the world. The other top-tier program that gets mentioned disproportionately in fiction is the program at MIT&M.

The Los Angeles metro region universities had programs which were all competitive with each other (And UCLA). However, after someone decided to sink southern California into the ocean the only two that remained were UCLA and CalTech, which is way out in Pasadena. CalTech is also a very small university now. Those two are mentioned in Corporate Enclaves, but it's not that big a deal.

GIven Seattle's importance to Shadowrun, UW and Seattle University both have important programs (Seattle's of course being much smaller than what UW can field).

Like UCLA's influence on L.A., MIT&M has driven all the Boston-area universities to open thaumaturgy programs. So you can get a degree from Harvard, Tufts, Northeastern, UMass, BC, or BU. But really you either go to MIT&M or you don't.

The University of Chicago has a strong program that survived the Bug City years.

Georgetown (in DeeCee) named their program Occult Studies. It's also a Jesuit-run university (As is Seattle U) so there is a Catholic influence there. The other DeeCee schools have their own programs, of course.

The major CAS schools are Georgia Tech and Texas A&M. I can't recall what has been mentioned, but I know it's not much, about schools in Louisiana. I would expect Tulane, Loyola (Another Jesuit university), or LSU to have pretty good programs since New Orleans is a pretty magical city.

There's a shamanic program at Lakehead University in the AMC.

Outside North America, the big programs are Charles University in Prague (Schwarzkopf, a great dragon, is one of the professors) and Jena University in the AGS.

Do regular colleges exist?

Yes.

[Warmachinez]

Bravo! Crimsondude Bravo!

[Crimsondude]

I think it deserves brief mention in the core magic supplement.

Though there is a shitload of material that can go into the core magic book, and especially with SR5's emphasis on alchemy and reagents I'd expect that to get more coverage than the minimal coverage alchemy and talismongering got in previous books. So who knows.

[Crimsondude]

Just to add something, Oxford also has its own Royal College of Magicians. I didn't mention Oxford because even though it's Oxford, it's also predominantly if not entirely focused on Druidic magic, which is the predominant form of magic in the U.K (The New Druidic Movement basically controlled the U.K. until Pendragon came along and Queen Caroline eventually replaced Lord Marchment and other stuff).

Also, it seems I overestimated UW's importance. And Seattle U doesn't have a Th.D program. The highest magic degree they offer is a Master's.