Great Expectations: Variations in Income Expectations Among College Seniors

Abstract

This article reports data on the income expectations of college seniors for themselves, their college peers, and their high school peers who did not go to college and the results of a multivariate (structural equation) analysis of income expectations for the respondents and the respondents' college peers. The male and female respondents had fairly informed expectations about the earnings of other college graduates, but differed sharply with respect to expectations about their own incomes, with the men being more likely than the women to self-enhance. Given similar income backgrounds, students whose fathers had a relatively low educational level expected comparatively high incomes from their own investment in college. The extent of variation in expectations raises questions about the definition of overeducation, as well as of a core assumption of human capital theory, and offers possibilities for the elaboration of the status-attainment model for income.

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