Health Careers High School

Posted: May 22, 2026

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Posted: May 22, 2026

I only came to this school for a year but I’ve made tons of memories and met tons of amazing people. I am currently a rising sophomore but this school has taught me a lot about myself and others aswell. This school is heavily focused on medical and if it’s something you are interested it’s worth giving a try. The work is extreme and will probably stress you out especially before Christmas time or the end of the school year. If your an athlete I would recommend this school with due to the lack of sports and coaches (my experience) but they will be getting new ones next year. The people are snoopy a lot around here and it’s best to keep your academic achievements to yourself unless you want to feel constant competition with others. Be careful with the admin as well they are not much of help and un logical with a lot of issue we have around campus. Other than that, this school does give you amazing opportunities to meet new and different people and figure out what you might want to do or be in the future.

Posted: October 25, 2023

This school is very highly rated because of the population it attracts, all of the students are very intelligent and used to getting perfect grades. However this school does not create an environment to support a healthy lifestyle. Our school is notorious for excessive amounts of homework but part of the issue is the approach to teaching, while I have had very good teachers I have also had... the opposite. Some teachers take the time to explain the material while others just give you the assignment and essentially tell you to figure it out on your own. Furthermore the general culture at this school is either you get a 100 or you've failed causing the students to stress, mentally suffer, and eventually drop out. Furthermore this school has noticably declined in quality,many of the positive reviews are older and new instances have arisen at this school recently, the most impactful being the removal of the biomedical engineering program, which occured because the teacher left and they were unable to find a replacement (the issue of teachers leaving and not finding replacements is also another problem).

Posted: October 25, 2023

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Posted: January 5, 2023

The school and its admin only care about what the student can do for the school . This is not a place that foments well-rounded individuals ready for college or the world. In fact, more than 30% of their students go to community colleges and 75% do not meet the criterial to be accepted automatically to UTSA, Texas A&M, UT Austin. In essence, you have a hyper-competitive school that only cares about numbers with 75% of each graduating class struggling to find a college to go to.
The demand on the students is huge with 4-7 hours of homework per night. The school is not reciprocal in the sacrifice of its students as the facilities are old and falling apart, the teachers are never available and their demands are so stressful that kids are pushed to the point of breaking.
While the vast majority of the students were considered special ed while in elementary and middle school. HCHS has not support system for the type of students they have in their halls. No emphasis on mental well-being.
Most colleges are looking at accepting well-rounded individuals that can cope with the demands of the world, but this school only worries about test scores and grades. Most students do not have time for "real" extracurriculars or properly enjoy a sport and the comradery of being part of a team since they have so many hours of work outside of school.
When we asked the principal to have him or anyone from his staff to meet with the assigned recruiter from Texas A&M and out student to clarify questions our student had, the principal refused and communicated to his staff that they were not to participate in the meeting.

This school does not provide any real advantage when it comes to the caliber of school the student is accepted, but it does diminish the chances of being accepted to a Texas university. It affects gifted students into burning out and believing that their only function is to study and get high marks.

I had two students at HCHS that well pulled out after extensive research and no matter where they end up in college they will have done so enjoying their high school life and getting to be regular teens. Something HCHS does not foment while not providing anything that merits the price these students pay.

Try to find notable alumni from HCHS. You will have a very hard time and the school does not keep an alumni association.

I can provide you with all my research if you ask. Keep your students healthy and well rounded, they do not need HCHS to succeed.

Posted: January 5, 2023

Posted: March 30, 2019

The teachers give out home work, but the problem is that it's too much even for a regulars class.

Posted: March 30, 2019

A lot of teachers here teach off of old data which is 15 years too old. Most share personal opinions and gang up 9n students if they don't convert to their radical beliefs.

Posted: March 30, 2019

The principles and other staff members are kind and will invest long hours into the betterment of the school.

Posted: March 30, 2019

If you're a little slower you're stupid. There was no help for those of us at the bottom of the class with 85-90 gpas.

Posted: March 30, 2019

Like I said if you don't have a 100 you were made out to be dumb, even by staff.

Posted: March 30, 2019

The worst. Never send your child here if they have the slightest it of potential. They will end up at the bottom of the class despite how good their grades are and not be accepted to college for full rides because of it. This school wasted 4 years of my life.

Posted: October 24, 2016

Several here have mentioned the scholarship dollar amount that is calculated each year at HCHS and other NISD high schools. There is nothing artificial about it. That dollar amount is for scholarship OFFERINGS; obviously students won't be able to use all of the funds since they attend only one school, but the amount of scholarship offerings at HCHS is significant and says a great deal about the quality of the senior class and their tenacity when applying for colleges and available scholarships. The quality of the education they are receiving is unparalleled. Talk to graduates who will tell you that they are breezing through courses in college and even tutoring their friends because they have such a strong educational foundation which they received at HCHS. If you want your child to be at one of the top schools in the state and he/she is willing to work VERY hard, then I would highly recommend Health Careers HS.

Posted: July 14, 2015

My daughter is a recent graduate who stated that, all things considered, she felt that the education she got at HCHS was no better than what she would have gotten in our district. She did appreciate the experiences and insight of many of her teachers, but found the opportunities not as great as originally presented (eg, there is no longer an EMT program funded there).

It is very important for parents and students to be aware of the "top 10%" law in TX, which requires TX state funded schools to preferentially admit those who graduate in the top 10% of their HS. HCHS is full of extremely intelligent, motivated students; being in the top 10% there will be much more difficult in than in an average HS. Your student might have been a top 10% in another HS, but be in the bottom 50th at HCHS; this will significantly reduce their ability to be admitted to a TX state university, requiring much higher SAT/ACT scores to compensate. You must consider this when selecting HCHS. Probably at least half of my daughter's graduating class ended up attending community colleges for that reason--to "get their grades up."

When you hear about all of the scholarship dollars that HCHS students earn, you also should be aware of how that is calculated. Students are asked to inform the guidance office of ALL of the scholarships they are offered to ALL of the schools they are accepted; those totals include scholarships that students cannot take (they can only attend one college!). And often those scholarships are to private schools, and do not come close to covering the difference between state and private. Millions of dollars are not actually used by the students; that is an artificially inflated number used by the administration.

Posted: July 14, 2015

In reference to how the scholarship dollars were calculated and bragged about by administration, that really affected my view of this school. A school that's all about numbers--and not really numbers that matter, numbers that are artificially generated--seems focused on the wrong things. And they way those scholarship dollars are calculated is bogus, which does seem like a genuine breach in integrity, teaching the students that the appearance of success is what we are really shooting for.

Posted: July 14, 2015

Considering the reputation of this school, we expected more consistently experienced and high performing teachers. There was a significant turnover during my daughters time at HCHS, resulting in some of the most experienced teachers leaving. That was also a good thing, as it brought in new and often more current clinical/medical information. In at least one class, information that had been presented by a teacher who had retired was replaced by a new teacher who was more in touch with current practice guidelines and actual medical practice; this was an indication to me that some of the teachers are not staying abreast of actual medical practice, but a good lesson to my daughter that medicine changes regularly. I also had a negative interaction with a teacher who had presented a blatantly false nutrition paper as fact; the information had been formally rejected by Johns Hopkins (the institution the false information claimed to be from). When I pointed this out to the teacher, that her information was false and poorly referenced, I received the response that "everyone is entitled to their own opinions", as if science and medicine was a matter of opinion. This was extremely frustrating and disturbing to me as a parent; I don't think it was widely represented in the staff, but do find it a significant problem especially for this high school and the expertise they claim to represent.

Posted: July 14, 2015

Most assignments seemed value added and appropriate, but my daughter did comment on some "busywork" assignments, or large stacks of papers/problems that the teacher either never gave feedback on or that included errors and misinformation.

Posted: June 26, 2014

The last person to posts are people who can't handle the rigor of HCHS and refuse to accept they are not a good fit for this school. If you work hard, HCHS will open massive doors. It's no surprise we get over 18 million dollars in scholarships every year for under 200 seniors. Also, most of the negative comments were not written by our students, but other "rival" schools (no one comes close to HCHS). Once a phoenix, always a phoenix.

Posted: April 23, 2013

Just because we have high test scores does not make this a good school. A good school has a good atmosphere and teaching philosophy, both of which are lacking here. This, coming from a student who excelled academically and in extracurriculars. While you will meet a more mature group of students here, the prevalence of snarky and inadequate teachers makes HCHS just like any other school. In the recent years, the administration has grown especially intolerable, with the new principal who shows passive aggressive favoritism. The amount of busy work (especially in Anatomy and Physiology) is ridiculous, but probably on par with other area high schools. While the other comment talks about bonding over studying, competition is fierce and the vast majority of conversations center around lack of sleep or gpa. Not a healthy environment, imo. A few great teachers (latin teachers, some freshman teachers, a few medical course teachers). In short, nothing special, probably more complaining students on average, no sports team, and a falsely inflated sense of elitism.

Posted: August 8, 2012

This is a wonderful school; the close environment is a great way to make close friends. The school is not only for health as it excels in the maths and sciences. I went here, and now I am at MIT, and I'm sure it is due to the teachers, the volunteer work, and the specialized health classes like the in-hospital Clinical Rotation class.