This paper explores the impact of computational thinking on academic success and school/career choices among first-year students in seven secondary schools in the Istria County. The schools included in the study are the Pula School of Economics, Pula Grammar School, Pula Technical School, Pula Industrial and Crafts School, School of Applied Arts and Design - Pula, Zvane Črnja Secondary School in Rovinj, and the Juraj Dobrila Grammar and Vocational School in Pazin. The study also examines the role of constructivist learning and its connection to computational thinking, as well as the relationship between students’ positive attitudes towards computational thinking and their computational thinking skills. The research utilised Likert scales to assess constructivist teaching and to evaluate attitudes towards computational thinking, along with a computational thinking test and a programming task. Students showed a positive attitude towards both computational thinking and constructivist teaching. In the computational thinking test, the average score of first-year students was M = 29.1973, SD = 14.4679, out of a maximum of 70 points. Only seven first-year students, out of a total of 523 from the schools involved, completed the programming task. The primary aim of the study was to determine the connection between computational thinking, school/career choices, and academic success. The research confirmed a link between computational thinking skills and school/career choices, as well as academic performance. Students with developed computational thinking skills most often enrolled in grammar schools, followed by four-year vocational schools, and finally three-year vocational schools. Additionally, students with advanced computational thinking skills achieved better academic outcomes (overall achievement, and grades in Mathematics and History). It was found that 20% of the variance in overall achievement and school/career choices could be explained by computational thinking skills.