This paper examines rural high school students' educational and occupational expectations and their relationships to personal, educational, school, and family characteristics. Questionnaires were distributed to all 10th and 12th graders in four small rural high schools in diverse geographic regions of Ohio. Almost all of the 491 respondents were white. Over 75% were enrolled in academic or general high school programs and had grade averages higher than "C." The socioeconomic status of most families was low, most mothers were not employed outside of the home, and most parents had not gone to college. However, parents had educational expectations for the educational attainment of their children far exceeding their own attainment. Parent educational expectations had a profound influence on students plans for higher education. Students had occupational expectations much higher than their parents' occupational status, and had somewhat unrealistic expectations about their incomes in the first year of employment. Students in academic and general programs and those of high academic ability had higher educational and occupational expectations than students in vocational programs and those of low academic ability. College and employment plans were generally sex stereotypic. School characteristics were not related to student expectations. This paper contains 16 references and 6 statistical tables. (SV)