Sociological surveys have shown that education in Russian society today still remains a valued priority to young people. It is in demand by a substantial portion of secondary school graduates who are hoping to continue their education in an institution of higher learning. The modernization of graduation and entrance tests, associated with the adoption of the unified state examination, has resulted in consequences that are not all the same for secondary school graduates and higher educational institutions. On the one hand, the exam simplifies the admission process in higher education, since it does not require additional examinations for most specialties and offers choice. On the other hand, secondary school graduates often are not knowledgeable enough about choosing a specialty, and the institutions lose the opportunity to acquire "their kind of" student. In addition, the enrollment procedure has not been sufficiently tested in practice and is not adequately transparent, as a result of which the institutions have a higher risk of underrecruitment and the applicants have a higher risk of not making it into budget-funded slots. Russian higher education institutions need to improve forms of preparation for the unified state examination and develop appropriate courses. Schools in Russia do not have the resources to do this, as a result of which school students have less confidence in their school knowledge and supplement it with various alternative forms of preparation for university admission. (Contains 2 figures, 2 tables and 2 notes.)