The educational aspirations and graduate school plans of 404 undergraduates at two universities were studied. Separate analyses were conducted for the 190 males and the 214 females who attended either a large, rural, public institution or a smaller, urban, church-related college. It was found that both men's and women's aspirations rose between…

A longitudinal path-analytic study of influences upon education aspirations suggests that academic performance, parental supportiveness, faculty-student interaction, and major department context played significant roles in outcomes, beyond the role played by freshman-year background characteristics. (Author/MLW)

Though educationally relevant factors are the most important in explaining college destinations, socioeconomic factors still play a big role. Influence of the ascriptive factors of race, ethnicity, and sex are more mixed in their effect. The academic and socioeconomic "rich" become richer, while the academic and socioeconomic "poor" become poorer.…

Equity in the institutional choices of enrolling college students was assessed. The focus of study was whether students similar in educationally relevant characteristics, but dissimilar in ascriptive or socioeconomic background characteristics, attend similar institutions at similar rates. The study was based on multiple regression analysis of…