Gakuen Alice has a plot that takes elements from your typical elementary school children's rom/com and adds superpowers and a mysterious school to give the plot body.

Story: 4
I feel that the story falls flat soon after you delve into the mysteries of the school. They fall into the typical manga pitfalls of dragging an arc out until the dead horse has been beaten to death....and then some. And if that doesn't piss you off enough, they do it....again. The pacing and characterization that took over the first few arcs just dies when the story delves into the School's mysteries. Personally, I could not bring myself to finish the manga after about chapter 147.

Art: 8
For all the pitfalls of the story, the art is pretty. The backgrounds are well developed and the characters themselves fit their personalities well. I like all the art and you can clearly tell the ages of the characters from the art style. I personally like the special shoujo squee moments in the manga because the art lights up the page and the screentones lend themselves to help the manga tremendously.

Character: 5
There are so many characters thrown into this manga that it is ridiculous. You get to know a few key characters from mikan's class and you also get to know at least 3 or 4 people from each branch of the school and even some more characters. Now this usually wouldn't be a problem normally, except every single character is developed very well, complete with their own back-story and complete personality profile. And most of this is thrown in with overly complicated "solve this mystery" type plot. Again. This wouldn't be a problem if the story and the characterization weren't jumbled together awkwardly.

Getting that out of the way, the characters themselves, which are a good portion of the meat and bones of this manga are relatively likable.
I however am NOT a fan of our main heroine, Mikan. She is whiny, not strong at all and so optimistic she could have a special on PBS. They overplay her martyrdom to the point of annoyance and it just gets worse as time goes on. And you will find yourself latching onto one of the side characters, who are well rounded to a point, quickly.

Overall: 6
Gakuen Alice is something that can be mildly enjoyed until it gets annoying. If you're looking for a children's story, hit Kodomo no Omocha. The main heroine is so much better. But if you're in it for the art, take a look, it's very pretty.