Wizard schools have a long history in fantasy--all the way back to Dracula, and probably further--but Strixhaven's Harry Potter vibe extends well beyond simply being a wizard school:
- The school is divided into long-established factions, each with a legendary founder.
- Each faction is defined by a particular ethos, and recruits students who are drawn to that ethos.
- Virtually everyone joins a faction. They aren't like college fraternities where most students never pledge.
- There is a popular magical sport, played in a stadium, with each faction fielding a team.
Of course, the division into factions, and the association of each faction with an ethos, is very natural for a Magic setting. The color system almost requires it; you'd have trouble creating a wizard school setting in Magic that
didn't look at least a bit like a Harry Potter pastiche. But Strixhaven leans into that resemblance hard. The sport of Mage Tower, in particular, is hard to see as anything other than a shout-out to Quidditch.
Those are all very surface level things, the divisions are actually based on certain type of British and American universities (maybe a few Canadian ones too, it's somewhat like the University of Toronto).
Yes Harry Potter has factions, but they are based on Dorms, not areas of study, the Houses of Hogwarts don't specialize in certain forms of magic, Strixhaven Colleges do.
Hogwarts is a Wizard's Highschool, it's filled with kids, Strixhaven is a University, it's filled with adults, hence it's filled with sex, booze, and other assorted grown up vices.
Sports on American Universities are a huge thing, so Strixhaven has that too, apparently Mage Tower isn't even the only one, you have Dueling and Silkball too. Hogwarts seems to only have the one sport.
Each of Strixhaven's Colleges is literally a Mage school in its own right linked together in a federation of schools with Strixhaven the centralized part, common to all, but Witherbloom, Lorehold, Silverquill, Quandrix, and Prismari are complete schools in their own right with huge campuses, multiple large buildings, and their own facilities. Hogwarts is a single magic high-school.
Strixhaven teaches more then just magic, but uses magic to teach more mundane subjects as well. Hogwarts just teaches magic as far as I can tell.
All the students at Hogwarts are humans (living and dead), all kinds of creatures go to school at Strixhaven's Colleges.
All the students and teachers at Hogwarts are wizards/witches (with the difference being Gender as far as I can tell), but at Strixhaven they aren't even all spellcasters, they can be Fighters, Clerics, Rogues, Monks, Wizards, Warlocks, Paladins, Rangers, Artificers, Sorcerers, Druids, Barbarians, Bards, etc...
