Beacon Academy

Beacon Academy is a facility for training teams of fighters to slay the various monsters that plague the world. The academy is run by Headmaster Ozpin.

Description
Students with the aspiration to become Hunters, whose duty is to keep the peace within the world, strive to attend Beacon. In order to be accepted into Beacon, students must go to special schools in order to be trained in combat (like Signal Academy) or be invited to the school after showing exceptional skill (like Ruby Rose).

Once being accepted into Beacon, new students have to go through an initiation, where they will be placed into teams after its completion.

The curriculum also appears to be rigorous and dangerous, as there is the possibility of death even during initiation.

Dress Code


All students are required to wear a uniform. The males wear black colored suits with a blue vest and white shirt with red tie. The females wear long stockings, which are an optional component, a red plaid skirt, and a brown jacket with a tan vest and white shirt. Students are given the freedom to customize their attire, as Ruby also wears her hood with her uniform. Wearing the uniform is also appears to be not strictly enforced, as one student in a lecture did not have his on, and was not reprimanded.

The uniform regulations seem to be generally strictly enforced, with students dressing in uniform even when in their dorm rooms. However, it is clearly also permissible for a student to wear their combat clothing instead. This is naturally the cases during combat-oriented exercises such as the Initiation Test and also dueling practice in the Amphitheater as well as other field trips. Additionally, some tutors such as Glynda Goodwitch seem to prefer to have their students in their combat attire even when giving orientation lessons on the campus. There may therefore be a degree of staff discretion in the enforcement of the dress code.

Location
Beacon lies along the East edge of Vale, and has a wide river that runs through part of it. Airships are used to transport new students to the academy. A port is seen at the bottom of the cliffs next to Beacon Academy, implying that you could also arrive by boat, from Vale. Beacon's boundaries appear to reach rather far, and includes a rather large forest and mountain terrain.

Main Avenue
After arrival, new Cadet Huntsmen and Huntresses are deposited on a long, wide avenue leading up to what appears to be the main academy buildings and their large, impressive main doorway. The avenue is marked with trees and flag-draped light-poles. Beyond the doorway is what appears to be a large, open-air amphitheater. Within this is a raised platform upon which a speaker can address those standing below. This amphitheater can also serve as a fighting arena, where the audience would stay on stands at the sides.

Beacon Tower
The most prominent part of the academy buildings is a large tower, apparently the same one seen in the opening narration of the first episode. This is surmounted by what appears to be some kind of signal light, possibly the beacon which the institution is named after.

Academy Gardens
The academy is also shown to have large gardens, apparently at the rear of the buildings, including a large pond surrounded by a path, where students are free to wander as they please.

Beacon Academy Statue
The campus for Beacon Academy also includes a large statue featuring two figures, one a male and the other a younger female, standing on a rock outcropping. They are both dressed in a kind of robe with hoods over their heads. The male has a sword in his right hand and he is raising it up in a seemingly triumphant gesture. The younger female has a double-edged battle axe in her left hand. She is looking off to the side at something on the horizon. Below the two figures is a Beowolf looking in the same direction as the male with an arm in the air.

Inside the Academy
There is a grand assembly area where Ozpin holds meetings of the student body for various purposes and a ballroom that doubles as a living area that new students may sleep in until they are assigned proper quarters. A uni-sex locker room is also present, as well as a dining hall and washroom facilities. After the initiation, to store weapons and extra armor, each student is assigned a rocket-propelled locker that can be sent to a custom location based on a six-digit code.

The Amphitheater
The assembly area is in the form of a glass-domed amphitheater with raised bleachers around in a circle around a circular stage that has a tall, ornate (possibly wooden) backdrop with blue lights. There is also a large open area in front of the stage where students can stand.

As well as being used for meetings of the student body, in Jaunedice, we see that the assembly area being used for dueling practice with the raised stage being used as the fighting area. The lighting in this area can be carefully controlled, making it impossible to see the rest of the area and giving duelists the illusion of being entirely on their own.

Lecture Hall
Beacon Academy has at least one lecture hall not unlike those found in universities. In Badge and Burden, we see a lecture hall with (apparently) antique drawings of the various known species of Grimm. This hall has sufficient space for practical demonstrations in front of the students' desks.

Dorms
All the dorms at Beacon appear to be co-ed dorms, with males and females sleeping in the same room. This is done to let all members of a team share the same living area. The students note that these rooms are somewhat cramped. However, more organised teams (such as JNPR) generally find that there is sufficient room to meet all of their needs.

The doors to the dorm rooms are secured using an electronic lock that is disengaged using a student's Scroll. It is possible to get locked out if the door closes and the student does not have their Scroll with them.

In Jaunedice Pt.2, we see that the blocks containing the dorms are in separate buildings some distance from the main academy buildings. This was first hinted at by the fact that students are seen running through the Academy Gardens on the way to classes in The Badge and The Burden.

Emerald Forest
Beacon Academy uses the Emerald Forest as the location for its Initiation. The forest is filled with dangerous wildlife.

Course Details
In The First Step, Ozpin stated that his new students will be in their selected teams for four years. This strongly suggests that this is the length of the education at the academy.

Practical exercises appear to be a significant part of the courses; of these some are held in the Emerald Forest. Other out-of-campus activities include field trips to locations such as Forever Fall.

Students also attend lectures, given by staff such as Peter Port, on various topics like the various monsters they may encounter, though these lectures also are inherently dangerous as students may be exposed to said monsters.

Known Teams

 * RWBY
 * JNPR
 * CRDL

Known Staff Members

 * Professor Ozpin: Headmaster
 * Glynda Goodwitch: PT and Duelling (also carries out orientation lessons)
 * Peter Port: Grimm Studies
 * Bartholomew Oobleck: Military & General History
 * Professor Peach: Unknown class, instructed students to collect samples of red sap from the trees inside the forest of Forever Fall

Trivia

 * The organization shares a similar goal with the DWMA from Soul Eater, as both train fighters to combat threats to their world.
 * Coincidentally, Ruby is somewhat similar to the character Maka Albarn; both wield scythes and are teenage girls younger than most of their peers.
 * Beacon is described as a legendary academy in the summary of "The First Step." This coupled with the fact that many warriors come to train at this school strongly suggests that not only is Beacon well known, but it is one of the best, if not the best, combat schools in Vale or possibly even in all of Vytal.
 * Based on Weiss', Blake's, and Yang's ages, the usual admission age for Beacon Academy is 17. Ruby however was offered an early invitation.
 * Despite some teams have members of mixed genders, such as Team JNPR, they're assigned the same room.