Ami Mizuno is absurdly wealthy and crazy smart, so... what is she doing at Juuban high? She certainly could pay for Mugen Academy's tuition, and she certainly has genius level brains. You could argue that she wanted to be with her friends, but Rei doesn't make this same choice. In reality it's probably that Naoko only made up Mugen Academy when she decided on the tie in story for the outers, but I like to make up in-world reasons. What do you think?

wasn't the academy where she got her powers in the first place and went through that scary moment?

I mean granted she is the things you mentioned but I think it would have been her school if Usagi never was around..

@Sports I think you’re thinking of Crystal Seminar, Ami’s cram school where she was awakened as a Sailor Soldier? Mugen Academy was where Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru and the Witches 5 attended and was run by Dr. Tomoe

I wanna say that Ami did hear about Mugen Academy and its prestige, but she probably also heard about how ultra-competitive and cut-throat the place is (not to mention the unhealthy degree of "school spirit" that the academy expects from its students and alumni), and decided that sort of environment wasn't for her, and that she's fine with how she'd been studying up 'til now.

My high school is kinda like Mugen, in the sense that we are very highly ranked academically, but students who aren't as academically inclined and/or can't keep up the pace tends to get passed over and ignored by the teachers, and there is a very annoying over-achievers attitude among the student body (heck, we had/have an SAT Club, which I only realized wasn't a normal thing at every high school until I went to college).

Isn't Ami somewhat surprised to learn more about the place when she tours the school? I feel like the Academy managed to be somewhat "under the radar" until the Death Busters arc begins. Perhaps the scandal from the accident that killed Professor Tomoe's wife had enough of an impact to keep Ami and her mother from considering the place as a legitimate opportunity.

SushiRoll wrote:

@Sports I think you’re thinking of Crystal Seminar, Ami’s cram school where she was awakened as a Sailor Soldier? Mugen Academy was where Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru and the Witches 5 attended and was run by  Dr. Tomoe

oh yeah..thanks SushiRoll

It was stated by Umino in act 27 thst it's a newly established school, so there's no surprise she wouldn't have gone. Mamoru even mentioned He's never seen the uniform before. 
And before high school the school was destroyed, so it would make no sense for her to take an entrance exam into a pile of rubble.

Aahhh yeah I was about to sya. I kinda remembered something like that too from the manga! Like they kept saying something along the lines that it felt like it just warped out of no where.

Starchild wrote:

so it would make no sense for her to take an entrance exam into a pile of rubble.

Unless you are Andi and want to study the pile of rocks.

All these are good reasons, but the situation in general reminds me of a kid I went to school with... he and I were the top 2 students in our grade since elementary school. When it was time to consider high schools, our district has zoned high schools, private high schools (most of which have affiliated elementary/middle schools), and a few magnet high schools which are public but unzoned and have different specialties. My siblings had gone to one of these magnet schools, and I went as well, which was expected. Everyone was surprised to hear that Elijah was going to his zoned school, but his reasoning was he wasn't better than anyone else and he could still achieve his goals even without going to some fancy school. (I say this, but our school wasn't particularly fancy; the building was falling apart... but still, you get the idea.)

Anyways, I could see Ami having a similar mindset! In addition to wanting to stick with her friends, she's pretty down to earth, so I could see the snobby atmosphere of Mugen putting her off, similar to how she preferred to use her own study methods as opposed to the Crystal Seminar. She's smart and she has big dreams, but I think she prefers to reach them at her own pace with her own methods rather than how other people think she should.

Iirc though, at least in Crystal she was considering attending Mugen.

Spoiler:

But, as mentioned above, she simply did not have the opportunity to make the switch before everything plot-wise went down.

^I think Ami considering Mugen was in the 90s anime and the dub as well?

^Also in the Manga iirc.

Oops I meant to say manga not dub thanks Prince Triton!

SushiRoll wrote:

^I think Ami considering Mugen was in the 90s anime and the dub as well?

Prince Triton wrote:

^Also in the Manga iirc.

I didn't get a chance to take screenshots and post here cause work was busy earlier but from what I saw while skimming through the manga real quick made it seem that Ami wasn't aware of Infinity Academy prior to the start of the arc and we know the Deathbusters had been established for at least several months if not longer, considering the time Tomoe put into developing Hotaru's body and daimon's. Then there's instances of non Senshi characters, noting that the area seemed weird, like the space was warped, etc. To me it, I always took it as the Infinity area just sort of appeared out of no where.

Buuut that's just my interpretation I guess. What specific parts of the manga was Ami considering Infinity? Cause I don't recall that. xD

As far as anime goes, it's been quite some time since I watched S so I don't really have an answer. She may or may not have there.

That part where she infiltrates and then goes all nerdgasm on the academy. But yeah it's like it was a spur of the moment rather than a thought-over decision

She did mention something when I was re-reading it about how amazing it was and Yui asked her if she was planning on taking the entrance exams. But I believe it was actually Yui who brought up her taking the exam.

So it looks like in Crystal (ep31) she enrolled in the Mugen *Prep School* first to find the girl getting top in the Nationwide Mock Exams. Then Viluy appears, talks up Mugen Academy proper and invites her to the school. My impression that she wants to go for herself was apparently based solely on her expression in this frame which is far from definitive evidence XD:


Oh well ^^;;. Can't win em all!

I am ok with Cardea. Ami love school but it's a simply girl, shy and she prefer a little school. But mugen academy i think it's like a dream for her because of there is lots of stuff, good students,...

Just to clarify (it’s been a while since I watched anything past R or read the manga)

Mugen Academy didn’t exist until S/the Infinity arc

It was destroyed at the end of the arc so Ami couldn’t have enrolled in there for high school upon finishing middle school?

Yep. That's why Haruka and Michiru end up attending Juban in the Stars arc.