In this guide i will try to cover some general advanced decision making and the reasons, some of the most powerful graduations and why, Some of the best items to place in rooms. hope this helps players that feel they still don't know what to really do to build a good school.

If anyone wants to help add more stuff feel free to let me know as i will only cover some things from my own experience.

Still to do the write-up, but i will start adding some things bit by bit.

• Always improve peasants reputation first to 75, don't fear taking a Reputation hit for peasants first event to get mana that you need but after that focus on them as 25% more messenger pigs is a really big deal, just make sure you have 25 Nature mana before each time you do so as it lets you get the far superior option for reputation.
  
• I would recommend trying to get Inquisition rep up to 80 as the second focus for the pig and you should have 100 Shadow mana each time you do it for 20 rep gains. 80 reputation with inquisition unlocks the option to push back evil forces by 3% with the rare King event at no cost.
  
• Plan your school layout before building it and feel free to leave empty gaps to be filled for rooms you had not gotten yet as bad layouts can lead to students never attending certain classes.
  
• Pay attention to your rooms before placing them, rooms that do not have a door on the back wall do not allow for movement between floors while rooms with no side doors will prevent of movement between rooms on same floor, and lastly some rooms have a skyline so they will take an extra floor above them preventing moving up or building a room directly above it.
  
• Always build a prison as soon as possible unless you already have a Chain wall decoration, early game you can get hit with events that will cost you prestige that you don't have much of if you don't have one. you can hold off placing it but if you see event bubble with parents icon then try to have one before clicking on event.
  
• Try to have 150 Light mana before clicking Adventure's Guild event icon as you never know when the event that is easiest to pass with light mana will pop as there are 2 such events.
  
• Always accept Deepfolk students no matter how bad they are, when they graduate all the prestige they earn gets converted to pushing back the evil forces.
  
• You will want several Janitor offices spread across the school and don't fear upgrading them few levels, but preferably you don't want them in corners as they seem to have a limited number of rooms they are willing to go past before returning to office, make use of the filtered map modes to see where school is dirty.
  
• Non-human students are always better than human as they generally come with extra bonuses that don't have any real downsides.
  
• Dumb students are not always bad, i had dumb students graduate as Achmages, its just that dumb students who enrol for 2 or 3 years will most likely only occupy space and fail to get any useful graduation.
  
• It may seem like a good idea to only focus on accepting good students who don't cause problems in class, but this game rewards you far more for just having massive number of graduates to stack up bonuses. main issue is having enough rooms to deal with with sanity, hunger and tiredness.
  
• If you see a lot of students walking out of your school have a closer look at what bubble is other their head, that will give you an idea what issue is most pressing in your school that needs to be addressed.
  
• Student traits can stack with House traits, so a student that has Chosen of the Light in a house that has the same trait will double the bonus.
  
• It may be a good idea to upgrade your first Refectories once or twice before building a second one as the building starts with -25% efficiency so students take 25% longer to eat in there, main exception to this is if you have accepted far too many students, one should be enough to feed about 30 students if not more.
  
• Teachers have a Flaw in Blue colour text, those flaws are permanent and cannot be gotten rid of using Crystal Ball item so be extra mindful of what flaw the teacher has in blue.
  
• When building, students will willingly travel 2 rooms up and down but only 1 room left and right without additional incentives. So when a student is done eating and looking for a class they will look 2 rooms up and down and the 1 room to the left and right. Space your needs rooms out to take advantage of this and you wont have empty classrooms. (From 2qhurda9 in the comments.)

So here is a list of all the top Graduations i have found, i have now gotten almost every single graduation with only about 3 or 4 short and these are the most useful ones.

(I still have to arrange this list in categories but for now i will just get the base list out)

(Some graduations have a modifier and i think if you meet modifier condition then it increases likelihood of getting that result but it is not necessary, the game does not give any explanation for it)

Graduation Name - Requirements - Effect
Comments

Magic Teacher – sum of magic levels: 12 – Modifier; has trait Unbreakable – teachers have 1% chance of better education
This is somewhat easy to get so should never be something you aim to get but it is something worth getting if RNG rolls it as just makes earlier game so much faster at getting better graduates, later on it is easy to fix teachers.

Archmage – 4 types of magic at lv 4 - Mana gain while studying +1%
This often appears as an objective for a mission to get one and many players fail it as its no so much hard to get as it is tricky, easiest way to get it is either making use of Guardian teacher buff or delaying the evil army enough that you have managed to get enough upgrades to classrooms to about +100% efficiency, once that is done you will be getting plenty of graduates with this graduation. This graduation is not very powerful until you have had quiet a few graduates with this, but it is not hard getting +20 graduates with this in 1 school.

Scholar – sum of magic levels: 14 – Modifier; has trait worker – 2% chance of Well-behaved trait
Easy to get and you should not aim to get it but whenever it comes up as an option by chance then take it until you have about 20 of them as this trait realty helps making more students causing less havoc in your school.

Midwife – Herbalism lv 2 + Sacred Magic lv 1 – 3% more new students
This is kind of hard to get outside the mission of needing to get 20 of them and you should aim to do this mission within first 3 schools as it makes the rest of schools so much more productive when you have so many more new students.

Calligrapher – Runes lv 3 + herbalism lv 1 – 0.5% chance of smarter students
You will need quiet a few of these to really see the difference, main issue is that it is almost impossible to aim your education to get this especially past early years, my best advice is assign a house to only do alchemy with only having class for Runes from alchemy and then have a Green Bed so your students get that 1 herbalism while they sleep.

Vampire Count – Vampire Trait + sum of magic levels: 14 – 1 Shadow Mana each season
Each graduate with this is about 40-80 Shadow mana per school, seems not much but once you got a few its becomes a reasonable number especially when combined with other bonuses

Dark Elf – Elf Trait - Assassination lv 3 + Necromancy lv 2 + Demonology lv 1 – Modifier; has trait aggressive – 10% more Shadow mana from events
Relatively easy to get as long as you assign an elf to a house that only does Shadow education, i would not aim for it but whenever i get it i would take it as it makes the satrt of next school year give you a massive boost in shadow mana when the first peasant event lets you lose peasant reputation in exchange for shadow, mana, with enough of these it becomes a substantial boost in early game shadow mana.

Conscripted Mage – Heroism lv 1 + Elementalism lv 1 – King reputation gain + 1%
Bit tricky to get but you want a bunch of these as they will make delaying evil army so much easier using the King.

Assassin – Assassination lv 4 – Modifier; has evil alignment – Reset lowest faction reputation to 0 + 100 gold
Has limited use but in the forest map this can be used to keep the ogre happy without spending mana, or when you upset the peasants too much you can reset their reputation with this.

Shaman – Druidism lv 3 + Elementalism lv 2 – 4% chance to lose Allergic to pollen trait
Nature mana is one of the most useful mana in the game and decreasing the penalty on students with this is a big boon, just 10 of these graduates would make a massive difference as allergic to pollen is a very common trait.

Inventor – Temporal magic lv 2 + Druidism lv 1 + Sacred Magic lv 1 – Alchemy cards cost 5 less
This is extremely powerful, takes a lot of micro or luck to get them but it makes a massive difference and with enough of these you can make your first few Alchemy cards cost zero mana.

Plane Shifter – Enchantment lv 3 + Portal Magic lv 3 + Retribution lv 3 – Arcane magic 1% faster
This is tricky to get as its spread across 3 categories, my best advice is to while trying to get Psionic Graduation if you meet Psionic requirements then send the student to house specialising in light and hope to get this if a roll for psionic fails.

Bloodhound – Werewolf trait + Retribution lv 2 + Beast Magic lv 2 – Playing artefact card gives 1 rep with Inquisition
Getting several of these are actually very powerful and with some luck you may not even need to send the pig to the Inquisition at all to max their reputation, which can save you 4 piggies and 400 shadow mana in the first few years.

Divine Fertilizer Assistant – Potion lv 2 + Druidism lv 2 + Sacred magic lv 2 – Nature magic 0.5% faster
You will need quiet a few to make a notable difference but as it affects all 3 Nature magics it is worth getting when you can.

Sigil Master – Heroism lv 3 + Demonology lv 3 + Runes lv 3 – Modifier; has trait diligent – Alchemy 1% faster
Another tricky to get Graduation as it is so spread, my best advice is doing some micro of moving between houses and not having any classrooms you dont need.

Barbarian – Heroism lv 4 + Assassination lv 4 – Modifier; has trait athletic and chaotic alignment – 3% chance to get Athlete trait
This feels like it is hard to get and i think it is because the modifiers requirement seems to have a big influence on this showing up. this is very useful, even a few of them will make enough of your students far more effective at getting around.

Werewolf – Beast magic lv 4 + Assassination lv 1 – 2% chance to get Light Sleeper trait
This can be useful if you got too many students, but can be counterproductive if you are trying to make use of sleeping character to passively teach them using placed items. somewhat easy to get as you only need a stable to teach them and then make use of Weapons Rack item to teach them assassination.

Main Career Counsellor – Sacred Magic lv 5 + Retribution lv 4 – 15 Light mana for each delegate interaction
Just Light focused house so not so hard to get and very useful bonus for early years.

Time Monk – Temporal magic lv 3 + Sacred Magic lv 2 – 2 Arcane Mana when playing a room card
having a few of these makes early school year so much easier as that is when you need mana and doing all your room placement, in my experience it is tricky to get as other graduation options always seem to get higher %.

Lord of the demonic planes – Demonology lv 1 + Portal Magic lv 3 + Necromancy lv 1 – 2.5% more Lord of Evil reputation gains
Every one of these will help getting your Lord of evil reputation faster to 75 to slow down the evil army.

Sylvan Protector – Potions lv 4 + Assassination lv 3 + Druidism lv 1 – 15% more Nature mana from events
Tricky to get, I recommend sending to alchemy class and once potions at 4 move to shadow house and use Green Bed for the Druidism

Ulfhednar – Werewolf trait + Runes lv 3 + Heroism lv 1 – 10 gold when you draw Alchemy card
Every one of these will help make a difference as gold is harder to earn than mana so any extra gold always helps.

Corrupted Pyromancer – Elementalism lv 4 + Demonology lv 3 – Demonology 1% faster, 15 reputation with Lord of Evil
The reputation with Lord of Evil is only for current school but in early years it can be useful.

Shapeshifter – Runes lv 3 + Beast Magic lv 3 – Modifier; has trait ugly – 2 Nature Mana each season
Nature mana is very useful so any passive free mana is always welcome.

Zombie – Slow trait + Necromancy lv 2 – Teacher salaries reduced by 1%
Teachers are one of your biggest gold sinks so anything that reduces it is amazing, only downside is the requirement of slow trait as it is hard to not accidentally purge that trait with a teacher or a bed.

Apothecary – Herbalism lv 3 + Potions lv 3 – students rest 0.75% faster
Very useful as it means beds are freed up faster so you can support more students.

Famous Bard – Druidism lv 5 + Portal magic lv 3 – Modifier; has trait chatty – gain 5 gold and Nature Mana every time you interact with peasants
This is great for early years as its extra gold and you get some mana back as you spend first your or 2 sending pig to peasants anyway so might as well make a profit while at it.

Arcane Adviser – Elementalism lv 5 + Temporal Magic lv 4 – 10 Arcane Mana each time you interact with King
You will be visiting the King a lot either to improve rep or push back evil army so every game this will add up. Both Arcane requirements so not so hard to get.

Time Warrior- Temporal magic lv 4 + Heroism lv 2 – 2 Arcane Mana each season
Free mana but bit tricky requirements.

Bat Breeder – vampire Trait + Beast magic lv 2 + Elementalism lv 1 – 6 Arcane Mana each time you draw a Nature Magic card
I find this really hard to get but it is very useful, its just very hard by the time you get vampires not to quickly bypass there requirements for higher graduations.

Wild Lord – Werewolf trait + Beast Magic lv 4 + Herbalism lv 4 – 1.5% more reputation with Peasants and Adventurer’s Guild
Peasants reputation is very useful as you will interact with them in every school.

Magic Club Manufacturer – Half-Orc trait + Heroism lv 1 + Elementalism lv 1 + Enchantment lv 1 – 10% more gold from events
Very tricky to get due to low level requirements but any gold gains will be very useful.

Thaumaturge – Jack of all Trades trait + 15 types of magic at lv 1 – new students start with 1/4 of one magic already learnt
One of the most powerful graduations in the game, you will probably need to do a lot of micro with moving student between classes to get this, i also recommend only doing with students that enrol for at least 5 years and have Jack of all trades trait, it says in game that its only a modifier but from my testing it seems without it the chances of getting this is too low.

Psionic – Temporal lv 5 + Portal Magic lv 5 + Enchantment lv 5 – Reduce cost of all cards by 5
One of the most powerful graduations in the game as with enough of these you can reduce first few cards cost to zero, allowing for a super strong start of each school. i recommend specifically only making the 3 required classrooms from Arcane and Alchemy to get this.

Blood Lord – Vampire Trait + Potions lv 3 + Demonology lv 3 – 5 Shadow Mana each season
Free Shadow mana each season, not much else to say. You can get Demonology taught using Demon Tapestry wall decorations by placing them in Trophy room next to bedrooms.

Elf King – Elf trait + Druidism lv 5 + Sacred Magic lv 4 + Temporal Magic lv 4 – Modifier; has trait pretentious – 15% Prestige from events
Tricky to get as need high levels from 3 different categories but the prestige gains are really powerful first few years of new school.

Spirit Speaker – Half-Orc trait + Necromancy lv 5 + Herbalism lv 2 + Elementalism lv 2 – Career Counsellor Efficiency increased by 5%
Tricky to get but makes Career Counsellor useful from earlier years as normally you need few efficiency upgrades before you start seeing it work well.

Plague Druid – Druidism lv 5 + Necromancy lv 4 – 6 Nature mana when you draw a Shadow Card


Star Gate Manufacturer – Portal magic lv 5 – Runes lv 5 – 10 Arcane Mana each season
Extremely powerful but the runes class will make it harder getting Psionic graduation that this partially overlaps with.

Magic Historian – Runes lv 4 + Temporal magic lv 4 – Push back evil 1%
This is only an immediate gain but its hard to say no to it if you do end up getting it by chance.

These are some of the most useful furniture and pets for the rooms.

(Note that the Floor placement items have an icon of a sword but i called it floor as they are usually placed on floor as they have a stand.)

Name - Deck category - Placement Location - Effect

Elven bow – Alchemy – Wall – Gives Elven focus which doubles immediate gains when student graduates, this means the mana or gold you get or reputation or items

De Vermi Tentaculi – Shadow – Floor – Non humans working in room improve magic they already know

Eternity vase – Light – Desk – Higher chance of new elf students

Royal Banner – Arcane – Wall – Active people in room have chance to increase reputation with King

Painting – Gold – Wall – Active characters have reduced growth rate of needs for some time

Herbalist Boards – Nature – Wall – Active students learn Herbalism

Library – Gold – Shelf – Room 35% more efficient

Grotesque Statuette – Shadow – Desk – Higher chance of new Deepfolk Students

Demon Tapestry – Shadow – Wall – Active students learn Demonology

Crystal Ball – Arcane – Desk – Active Teachers have chance to lose negative trait

Door Between Worlds – Arcane – Floor – Students working learn Portal and Enchantment 25% faster for few minutes - Event

Large Hourglass – Arcane – Wall – Active students learn Temporal Magic

Window to another World – Arcane – Wall – Active students learn Portal Magic

Chains – Shadow – Wall – Students misbehave less for few minutes – Helps bypass several negative events

Drooler – Alchemy – pet – Cleans rooms like janitor

Unfinished Golem – Alchemy – Floor – Reduces room upkeep by 25% (max 4 for 100%)

Evil Banner – Shadow – Wall – Active people in room have chance to increase reputation with Lord of Evil

Rune Stone – Alchemy – Floor – Active students learn Rune Magic

Skull – Shadow – Desk – Active teachers may lose Unionised status

Terrarium – Nature – Shelf – Active students learn Herbalism

Criticality Prism – Light – Desk – Techer can do critical hits for teaching

Manavore Snake – Nature – Pet – Increases efficiency of all rooms on this floor by 15%

Green Bed – Nature – Bed – active students learn Druidism and Herbalism

Repentant Bed – Light – Bed – Active students can lose a negative trait

Heatbox From the Future – Arcane – Stove – Active students decrease hunger

Weapons Rack – Light – Floor – Active students learn Assassination and Retribution

Armed Chest – Alchemy – Desk – Active students learn Enchantment – only seen this in dungeon and event rewards

Tribal Bed – Nature – Bed – Characters who sleep here don’t become tired for a long time

Fairy Dragon – Arcane – Pet – increase chance of non-human new students

Ivy – Nature – Wall – Increases adjutant room Efficiency by 15%

School Coat of Arms – Gold – Wall – Active characters increase Prestige

Totem – Nature – Floor – Active students learn Druidism

Wooden Set from the World Tree – Nature – Stove – Active characters increase Prestige

Magical Hat – Arcane – Desk – Teachers have chance to improve their Pedagogy

Sword in the Stone – Light – Floor – Active students learn Heroism


Aquarium – Alchemy – Pet – Active students generate money

Medical Bed – Light – Bed – sleeping student Heals heath and generates gold

This is probably most of the curses as i watched a bunch of YouTube videos to see what curses other players come across, let me know if i missed any.

Curses to avoid:

Curse of the Old Ones - Your students gradually lose Sanity. (This is horrible for first few years before you have rooms to deal with it.)
Farvning curse – Reduce reputation gains with all factions by 25% and increases Lord of evil reputation gain by 25% (one of the worst curses in the game)


Curses to take:

Anti-Magic Curse – Reduces all mana gain by 10% but increases all gold gains by 20%
Bloody Curse – any attack on your school is joined by 3 extra enemies, Faction relationships worsen 10% faster. (Probably should be avoided on harder difficulties and certain challenge runs where combat is harder to avoid)
Entropy Curse - Increases the university's upkeep cost by 150%.
HR Curse – All new teachers start with one or 2 extra flaws
Incompetent Curse - Your Teachers are worse educators than usual. (This is not as bad as it sounds as you can upgrade teacher pedagogy using items)
Mediocracy Curse – Your students start with 2 extra Flaws
Poverty Curse - New students are on average poorer than usual. (You can upgrade student wealth with a pet so not that bad)
Stupidity Curse – New students already want to misbehave as soon as they arrive. Fires and portals take longer to be handled
Warp Curse - The forces of evil close in 10% faster, but your students improve 5% faster. (Take this if you have to but if you can avoid it)


Curses i have not tested and effects are not obvious:

Sloth Curse – Your student’s needs grow more often in bursts. (Can be managed with well placed rooms and items but we still don't know how often it triggers and it is probably not a good idea to take if going for large number of students as it will scale the more students you have.)

This is a list of books you get based on number of Stars you get by end of school for completed missions.


Architect Codex - Room efficiency is improved by 1% per floor.
Book of Wisdom - The intelligence of students is always one level higher. (In theory this should mean no more dumb students)
Elder Codex - Teachers' pedagogy is always one level higher than usual.
Eternal Encyclopedia - The cost of cards increase half as fast after a purchase. (This is super powerful as card cost increases by 25 instead of 50 so cards may be 1000 mana cheaper by later years)
Forbidden Spell Book - The army of darkness advances 5% slower. Start each level with +100 Shadow Mana.
Great Book of Dreams - Your students lose a bit of Hunger and Boredom in dormitories and private bedrooms.
Great Book of Runes - Rune scriptoriums increase the efficiency of rooms in the same row by 30%. Start each level with a rune scriptorium.
Higher Magic Spell Book - Lowers the level Requirement for wearing equipment places by 1 for all students. (This sounds better than it actually is as by later years when you are getting the bulk of you good potential graduates, you will have obtained more than enough artefacts to render this effect useless)
Necronomicon - Increases the room's efficiency by 3% any time there is an explosion or a portal is opened by a student.
Sports Almanac - Each year generates a card that gives 700 gold pieces.


Blacksmith Master Spell Book - Start the game with two random equipment cards.
Book of Wealth - The wealth of students is always one level higher.
Draconic Legends - Start the game with a Turquoise Dragon Card. (Dragon cards are just not worth while as they don't make enough of a difference early years and by the time they are useful you probably gotten them from the deck.)
Dragon Prophecies - Start the game with a Red Dragon card. (Dragon cards are just not worth while as they don't make enough of a difference early years and by the time they are useful you probably gotten them from the deck.)
Home Magic - Start each game with a Janitor card.
Light Hymns - Increases the efficiency of rooms adjacent to Light rooms by 5%.
Map of Telluric Lines - Increase the efficiency of rooms adjacent to arcane rooms by 5%.
The Lord of Evil's Biography - Increase all Lord of Evil reputation gains by 50%. (One of the better options from 2 star rewards)


Druidism for Dummies - Start each level with a random Nature card.
Magical Beast Encyclopedia - Gain 3 Prestige each time you play a creature card.
Postumus' Wisdom - Each artefact increases the efficiency of its room by 5%.
Scroll of Seduction - Increases the number of students interested in the university by 10%.
Warrior Codex - Improve your students and teachers' combat level by 20%.