A growing number of families around the world are relying on student loans to pay for university under recent cost-sharing policies. However, it remains unclear to what extent university costs and the likelihood of needing student loans affect decisions in the early stages of education. This article examines the influence of parents' attitudes towards taking out student loans and anticipated economic burdens for attending university on high school choice, using a longitudinal survey of students and their mothers conducted in Japan. This article shows that students whose mothers anticipate a large financial burden and are averse to taking out student loans are more likely to attend vocational high school than those whose mothers do not so anticipate and are willing to borrow. Furthermore, lower-class families show greater sensitivity to these perceived material barriers in upper secondary school choices than higher-class families when navigating a highly privatised educational system.