Women continue to be underrepresented in scientific and business careers, yet little is known about the impact of women's school experiences on their career development. To investigate how educational institutions encourage and discourage women entering scientific and business careers, 50 female college seniors in these majors were interviewed and asked to complete a 26-item career survey, taken from the Student Development Task Inventory (Winston 1979), and a questionnaire on influences. Mean scores and a stepwise regression analysis indicated that subjects received encouragement in their educational and career goals from parents, friends, siblings, and certain faculty members. Classroom experiences, doing well academically, and special projects were indicated as encouragers, while extra curricular activities other than work experiences were not considered influential. These women rated interactions with counselors as their least encouraging experience. Interactions with graduate students and advisors were also viewed as less encouraging. Subjects most active in career planning indicated that they were encouraged by professional conferences, and cited a need for more female role models and improved career advising. (The paper includes the survey instruments.) (JAC)