Cadets select colleges in consultation with parents, teachers, and school counselors through presentations, catalogs, alumni visits, and college visits. Ninety-five percent of the 85 seniors in 1996 were accepted at colleges. The academy has grown to a capacity of 560 students. The majority of the cadets are residents of Texas, but twenty-six states and several other countries are represented within the student body. The other states with the greatest representation are California, Florida, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.
Students are in residence from Mexico, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.
The student body includes boys from most of the ethnic backgrounds found in America. Cadet conduct is governed by a set of rules codified in The Right Guide, which is given to each cadet at first registration. No cadet graduates from plebe status until he passes a test on these rules. Basically, conduct is that required of any good citizen, with the added requirement of the military courtesies. The Corps of Cadets is commanded by a cadet lieutenant colonel and is organized into seven companies.