Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions

"My kid is in this school. Was excited however now is disappointed. While they put lots of pressure on learning, their teachers are LOUSY. A letter of recommendation takes 2 weeks +, every time. Student EC is a mess too. As a result the student are NOT competitive despite of handwork. Student have hard time to get into RICE which is in walking distance. What's the point if kids can't getting a good school? Remember the school already gave up sports totally."

"First let me say that Debakey is a top notch school. I love the location, the nice/new/clean feel of the school and how the PTO and administration keep parents informed of new and important information. What I dislike, and takes away from the above, is the insurmountable workload. It is insanely ridiculous. My daughter had 3 projects in the first week of school & a quiz. HOW??? Projects have a 1 week or less turnaround time to complete. My daughter spends at least 4 hours EVERY DAY completing homework. How is a child supposed to have time to study when they’re being drained completing piles of homework? The school prides itself on rigor, and I appreciate rigor. I don’t appreciate unnecessary stress that leads to my child crying and shutting down over having so much to do. Some students have complained that they go to sleep at 1:00am on a “good day”. How is that ok? A heavy Workload, rigor, and upholding a prestigious expectation is not a priority over wellness, sleep, mindset. The staff have given motivational talks about “you’re gonna fail, and it’s ok”, and “a lot of students go to their homeschool in their first semester “. How is that encouraging and motivating? I understand that you have to live up to the challenge, but make the challenge sustainable, achievable. These kids deserve to have a sense of normalcy. I don’t work this hard in my paid career."

"Graduated here from 2010. The only good thing that came out of this school was the math department but then again every school’s strongest department is math. They hire people not based on teaching performance but degrees. Teachers don’t even bother asking their students how they care. Definitely not sending my kids here."

"It's a very good school for students who are used to PreAP and AP standards. For students, like me, who aren't used to those standards go through a hard time in the Freshman year but thankfully most of the teachers are very helpful. Students are very competitive and friendly here and are, for the most part, helpful. The only problem I have is that we are pushed a little too far from my comfort and students don't have that much free time when they get home. Most time is spent doing homework, studying, and getting what sleep we can. It's a difficult school but if you believe in yourself, that you can make it, then it's possible to make it through all 4 years. There are just some sacrifices that will have to be made."

"It was meh the teachers can be pretty dismissive for a relatively small school not to mention there are no sports there and the teachers constantly brag about "debakey standards" if you can't get in to somewhere like bellaire or carnegey then I guess this would be an okay option maybe."