Thousands of students across North Texas are walking the stage as high school and college graduates this spring. In a series of stories this week, NBC 5 Today is highlighting the challenges they’ve overcome and what’s in store for their futures amid the pandemic.

For high school graduates, this final semester of senior year has been filled with stress in finding the right school or making the right plans that fit with their goals.

Picking the Right School

May 1 marked the national deadline to pick a school.

Some students haven’t even set foot on campus for a tour, especially if it’s out of state. Luckily, many schools are doing virtual tours but that can be hard for students to do when making one of the biggest decisions of their lives.

“The universities have done a great job of creating virtual tours. You just click through and they have a tour guide, they have YouTube videos you can watch. So even if you can’t tour in person, touring virtually is also an option,” said Priya Alexander, who is graduating from Nimitz High School in Irving at the end of this month.

She said she is choosing to stay local for her higher education by going to Southern Methodist University to major in political science and business administration.

Learn more in this NBC 5 segment.