Male (N=920) and female (N=915) rural, senior high school students from Eastern Kentucky (N=643), Central Kentucky (N=617), and Western Kentucky (N=575) were surveyed for purposes of exploring: levels of occupational and educational aspirations and expectations, felt certainty of achieving career goals, and migration plans after graduation according to sex and region of residence and the relationship of socioeconomic factors and intelligence test scores to levels of occupational and educational aspirations and expectations. Some findings were: males most often aspired to professional occupations and females to white-collar positions; levels of occupational aspiration were lowest for Eastern Kentucky males and highest for Western Kentucky males; males most often expected to enter manual or farming occupations and females expected to enter white-collar occupations; lowest levels of occupational expectations were for Eastern Kentucky males and highest levels were for Western Kentucky males; high proportions of both sexes aspired to attend college with greater proportions found in Western Kentucky; about as many males and females expected to as aspired to enter college; high proportions of both sexes expected to leave their counties after graduation; high proportions of both sexes were relatively sure of achieving their career goals; for both sexes, the probability of choosing a high-status occupation or attending college correlated with high socioeconomic status and high IQ. (JC)