Occupational Attainment Among Male College Graduates

Abstract

In a large national survey of 1961 college graduates, occupational prestige expectations in 1964 were the strongest predictors of the prestige of the job actually held by a man in 1968. The strongest academic variable was graduate school attendance, followed by college grades, academic ability, and college quality. The actual degree earned between 1964 and 1968 was a rather weak predictor, probably because not all men had yet earned their highest degree. Prestige expectations held at earlier periods were not so closely related to job prestige as the 1964 expectations were, but those held as early as the freshman year in college were of some importance.