Will a grade school and high school steal students from my university?

This question is related to this other question: Once you build a University, can the high school and community college be safely closed?

I find that my University is routinely under-used, while I have two grade schools that are routinely close-to-full.

Has anyone experimented with disabling their grade schools? Does the university fill up? Or are the student pools entirely different?

Update: I tried powering off my grade schools and high school during the night (community college was already off). Around 4pm of the that day, the University crossed the 1,000 students threshold.

So I think this is evidence for the "single student" pool hypothesis (which is weird I suppose).

Solution 1:

Yes and no - universities rely on your city's mass transit system and road network to allow your students to get to it. School buses will not drop students off at a university, therefore only students that can arrive using mass transit or a car will go to a university.

Grade schools and high schools on the other hand provide their own transport, it still relies on your road network but is separate from your mass transit. These schools will pick up students from school bus stops, and students will wait for the buses at the school stops provided that the stop is within walking distance (highlighted by the dots along the road when you place the stop, or detailed on the education overview).

One of the main challenges I faced while trying to build a comprehensive education system that enrolled all students was transport, sending out fleets of buses would gridlock my road network during school hours - if your students can't get to a school they will unenroll.

I have written up a comprehensive answer here