User blog comment:Sentry 616/Absent Huntsmen/@comment-25436196-20160226033152

I imagine NDGO probably went back to Vacuo after their fight, since I don't remember seeing them in the background after chapter 2. Since Cardin was fighting in Vale, I think the rest of his team could be fighting in the city too, maybe the rest of Team FNKI as well. And while we haven't seen her other teammates, Ciel looks more like an intel/mission control kind of character, so I think there's a high chance she was told to evacuate.

As for the unnamed Students, I think the older or more skilled trainees were helping Glynda and Qrow supress the Grimm invasion in the city, like CFVY did in the Breach, while the younger and less skilled decided to evacuate. After all, Ironwood did say that no one would fault them if they left, and we actually see students getting in the evacuation ships during chapter 10. We can't forget that despite training to be super-human mercenaries (kind of), many of them are still teenagers, and could have been overwhelmed with the thought of fighting a full-scale invasion like that before ending their training. Not to mention any students who weren't fighting in the tournament and were just there to watch. Those probably didn't even bring their equipment to Vale.