In a study that had as its object to look at recent changes in the potential pool of health manpower, the focus was on 1974 college freshmen who declared their intention of going into a career in a health field. Data came from the student files of the American Council on Education's Cooperative Institutional Research Program. The report has three objectives: (1) to profile the most recent group of aspiring nursing and allied health (NAH) professionals on whom data are available, those who entered college as full-time freshmen in 1974; (2) to compare the characteristics of the sex and racial/ethnic categories (men and women, blacks, and nonblacks) and of the four analytical subgroups of those categories within each career choice, with special attention to blacks; and (3) to highlight trends in the characteristics of aspiring NAH professionals by comparing the latest group with earlier cohorts in 1966 and 1972. The nursing and allied health professions considered are therapy, medical technology, and dietetics/home economics. Extensive statistical tables and graphs are included. (Author/MSE)