Why apprentice at one wizard school over another?

[Sir Brennen]

Is your player's school co-ed?

 

[Victim]

Access to spells might be one major reason. Not only will wizards often know different spells because they focus on different areas, but there's also rare or custom spells to consider. If one wizard has researched a dozen unique spells, then training with them might be the only way to get access to those spells.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the easiest way to differentiate the schools in the minds of the players is to give students at a school free access to spells from a given supplement. It won't take long for them to grasp the differences between a wizard's school that grants access to the wizard spells from Frostburn compared to one that grants access to the Complete Arcane spells and they'll understand why the top school charges so much when they see it offers access to all the spells from the Spell Compendium. (This also makes statting up graduates of the different schools mechanically a little different without being terribly difficult to do.)

 

[Greg K]

By RAW, I see no reason. In my campaign, however, Wizard PCs don't get to choose just any spell from the PHB. They choose their beginning spells from the spells which are in the spellbook of the person that trained them- and the wizards capable of teaching have already been predetermined and fleshed out prior to character generation.

And unlike RAW, wizards do not automatically learn spells each level. They need to find another wizard willing to teach them or they must have to have either a scroll or another wizard's spellbook

 

[Starglim]

I prefer (as player and DM) for wizards learning new spells to have some reasonable means of access to that spell. Either they have a copy of it (scroll or captured spellbook), their tutor has a copy, or they have considerable reference works or access to special knowledge on related spells, magical theory and so on to have a reasonable chance of researching it. (Adventuring wizards seldom carry large numbers of reference books.)

Thus, wizard schools with good libraries and unusual research sources are at a premium. A would-be specialist in particular would want to study with wizards who focused on the same specialty.

 

[Starglim]

It also doesn't hurt with the connections that form there. My players have already encountered snobbery between alumni of various schools. Having the right signet ring (and being able to sing the right alma mater) can open doors IMC just as belonging to the Harvard Club in NYC can in real life.

That's a good point. Not every PC can immediately name a 10th level wizard who can get him in to talk to an 18th level wizard, if required. It could easily modify the reactions of NPC wizards from the same school or provide a source of useful rumours and trade talk.