The purpose of this paper is to examine some factors which may have an effect on occupational choice and perceived goal-blockage of high school students in 2 selected geographical areas. The factors examined are residence, race, education, and self-concept. Group I consisted of 264 male and female black high school seniors in Louisiana. The rural subsample consisted of 157 students, 67 male and 90 female. Group II consisted of 484 high school students in 15 East Texas high schools who were interviewed in both their sophomore and senior years. The second sample was designed to insure the inclusion of male, female, black, and white students. Major findings were that lower-class southern rural and urban black youth have relatively high-status occupational desires, that significant differences existed between rural and urban females in the high aspiration and expectation categories, that the respondents tended to show agreement in their perception of blocking factors, that the proposition that urban youth will experience lower levels of perceived goal blockage than rural youth was only partially supported, that white youth will experience lower levels of perceived blockage than black youth, and that the perception of goal blockage will not increase as high school students approach the time of graduation. (PS)