@Shawnheatherly Sure, but they’ve told similar stories thousands of times, so they really don’t need more of them just to tell that story.
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Well, in anime, there are so many school settings in part because there are so many school settings.
The thing about anime is that it’s highly formulaic, these days even more so than Western cartoons or Hollywood movies. This is driven by industry economics: There isn’t any money in it for quirky cult anime, because every anime has to be made and sold with the hope of becoming a big out-of-the-park hit that can pay for all the flops. So you get sequels to existing hits, you get school series, you get harems, and so on. Setting a series in high school is just one part of the standard formula, just like for a while in Hollywood, the joke went that every new pitch was “Die Hard in/on an X.”
The more you vary from the standard frameworks, the harder it is to get published, and as the anime market shrinks annually, that’s only going to get worse.
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Someone should have told me that isn’t the way it works here in the west, because last time I checked I haven’t had any meaningful free-time since I went to college and ever since… Joke aside, I believe after high-school you are expected to get on with your life in a responsible, disciplined way until you can retire, not only in Japan. Maybe Europe (Portugal) is different from the US? I mean, I haven’t met anyone who can relate with how “college-life” and even “school-life” work in the US over here in the old continent. Way too much partying and all that over there (at least in the movies).
But anyway, on a more on-topic response, I believe we can do a lot more with school and college settings than with any other type of setting in a CoG. I mean, you are forced to hang around certain people, and decide the course of your life. After that things get messier to portray in a CoG format. And besides, we are experiencing for the first time most things in our life, and our background is almost irrelevant because, well, 15 something or 20 something years just isn’t enough time to force the writer to give you a lot of choices concerning background.
I would say that “School” settings are so popular because it’s a familiar environment that most people can relate to. For stories with more fantastical aspects, it also provides a great way to ease the player into the world; a school functions as a microcosm of society. A school can function as a place where the player character/student can learn the history, laws, and culture of a “fantastic” society without the exposition feeling too forced or heavy-handed.
I don’t think School settings are a stale trope. However, I do think it would be interesting if writers could put the player in a role other than “new student”. Imagine working at a Harry Potteresque “magical” school not as a new student, but rather as a visiting professor, an administrative staff member, or even the janitor. I think a little change in perspective could go a long way towards shaking up the established conventions of the School as a setting.
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I would add a new one, apparently now it has become an avenue for people like @ParrotWatcher to vicariously torture us with dreadawful British crimes against fashion in the form of their “classic” schoolboy uniforms. 
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Do what I do - give the game a cursory glance to see if anything about it tickles your senses, if not then dump it and move on to other more interesting titles. Things that don’t sell are usually a clear indication it’s time to change subject but just because we don’t like something doesn’t mean others think the same.
While school games are in season now there is still one or two that pop up with a different setting. Trends tend to change as time goes by so just gotta wait this one out until something you like becomes the new one.
I haven’t tried any of COG’s school games but I’ve played other cyoa games where you’re in school. For me there’s multiple reasons I like them. Firstly nostalgia, when I was in school it was all I knew, my friendship dynamics were normal/typical(unlike now obvs), I couldn’t imagine anything else, I was socially more adept, I wasn’t visually impared and ,my mental state was a lot, lot better, I constantly wish I could go back and redo it. School is such a big part of my pschy(sp) that I dream about themes surrounding school a lot.
Another big part is I like games where I can relate to the protagonist, same reason I usually don’t like games that are gender locked male. This doesn’t just apply to age, setting etc but choices that are available, plot etc.
I’d say the final big reason for me is escapism/wish fulfilment. This is because as well as the school setting being part of this, I’m trans and would’ve liked the support/opportunity to live as female as soon as possible(especially as I’m not doing so now fully). I guess that’s the same reason in games like freak despite there being a trans option I pretty much always pick the cis female option. But obviously these reasons are quite unique and personal to me but my reason of nostalgia is probably a big factor for a lot of other people I’m sure.
Because it’s Elementary my dear CoG person…
I’ll see myself out
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I’ve always preferred college settings. Ever since I’ve become an adult - in calendar years if not maturity - I’ve been made uncomfortable by anything teenage or lower. And I’m only 21.
You sure you’re not tempted…? 
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Reminds me of the game I played recently where are the protagonist Society was gendered female who is but their actual biological gender was intersex and they themselves actually a trans man. They personally would love nothing more to be only viewed as a man not transgender not as something in between or half but as a full man. It’s interesting how did Floyd it in that it’s interesting how they used it in the game it was a plot twist you find out 3/4 in game. But the executed wonderful because it is wonderful flashback scene of them coming to terms with and figuring out who they are. So when you meet this trans character in the beginning you don’t know they’re trans you don’t know in for like 20 hours into the game. Then they just dump it on you because it’s a secret they’re keeping from their love. And their own personal fear of how they would do them if they found out. Mind you though it did take place in like the 11th century