See which Texas colleges Nueces County and Corpus Christi students choose

If a Nueces County high school graduate enrolls at a college or university the fall semester after they finished high school, there’s a good chance they’re stepping onto a Coastal Bend campus.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board tracks Texas students from public high school into higher education.

Every year, the board provides counts for how many graduates from each Texas high school were enrolled at a Texas institution by the following fall semester, naming institutions where five or more students from the same high school and graduating class were enrolled.

Data from Nueces County schools shows that many local high school graduates in recent years have chosen Del Mar College, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi or Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

When students venture outside of the Coastal Bend, they often choose a public college or university.

See which colleges and universities Nueces County students are choosing below.

The data focuses specifically on Texas post-secondary institutions. If a high school sent high numbers of graduates to an out-of-state college or university it would not be reflected in the data below.

The colleges and universities that stand out differ depending on high school and school district.

Del Mar College was the most popular institution for 2022 Corpus Christi graduates across the board, with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi also appearing often.

Schools like Corpus Christi ISD’s Veterans Memorial and Ray high schools and Flour Bluff ISD’s Flour Bluff High School sent between one dozen and two dozen 2022 graduates to the University of Texas, and about a dozen each to Texas A&M University.

Texas A&M University-Kingsville was particularly popular at Tuloso-Midway High School, where 28 2022 graduates enrolled at the university, which was the second most popular institution for the high school that year, only five students behind Del Mar College.

The University of Texas San-Antonio was one of the most popular non-Coastal Bend institutions, drawing students from Carroll High school, Veterans Memorial High School, Moody High School, Miller High School and Tuloso-Midway High School.

Texas State University also drew a handful of students from some Veterans Memorial, King High School, Flour Bluff High School and Tuloso-Midway High School.

From Veterans Memorial High School, one of the schools where the colleges and universities chosen by graduates varies the most, 128 class of 2022 graduates were enrolled at Del Mar College by fall 2022. About 60 headed to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and 20 to Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Outside of the Coastal Bend, nine students studied at Texas A&M University in College Station, 16 chose Texas State University, 22 chose the University of Texas at Austin and 32 chose the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Another 32 Veterans Memorial students enrolled across 18 more Texas four-year institutions and another 14 enrolled across eight more two-year institutions.

By contrast, Branch Academy and Collegiate High School, which both offer students the opportunity to earn an associate’s degree before they graduate high school, did send some students to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Del Mar College, but beyond those two schools, graduates scattered.

Collegiate sent 15 graduates to ten other Texas colleges and universities and Branch sent 14 students to 10 other institutions.

West Oso High School, which is the only high school in West Oso ISD, a small district in Corpus Christi’s Westside, only sent five or more students to Del Mar College and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2022 and 2021. In 2020, is also sent six to Texas A&M University-Kingsville. In total, it sent 55 students from the class of 2022 to 14 Texas colleges and universities.

Outside of Corpus Christi, Robstown Early College High School sent 46 students from the class of 2022 to eight institutions, including Del Mar College, A&M-Corpus Christi and A&M-Kingsville.

The state also collects data on the outcomes of Texas high school graduates six years down the line, included whether they have earned a degree.

The data shows that many students, including those who start at a two-year institution go on to earn bachelor's degrees. The data for Corpus Christi ISD highlighting outcomes for 2014, 2015 and 2016 graduates shows that differences appear when students are separated by which high school they graduated from.

Veterans Memorial High School is not included in the chart above because the school's first graduating class was in 2017.

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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: See which colleges were popular for recent local high school grads