Using data gathered as part of a study of young people's early career attainments, this paper examines factors that influence Australian high school seniors' plans to attend college and their actual entry into college. The paper applies the Fishbein-Ajzen (1975) model of attitude-behavior relations to the particular issue of the link between intentions to continue school and the realization of those intentions. Results show that the Fishbein-Ajzen model provides a useful, but incomplete, representation of the educational attainment process. In accord with the Fishbein-Ajzen model, favorable attitudes toward higher education, parental encourage ment, and friends' college plans all lead to the formation of intentions to enter college. Intentions, in turn, predict actual college attendance. Other results, however, suggest revisions in the Fishbein-Ajzen model. In partic ular, college entry was affected by attitudes toward college, academic achievement, and parental encouragement, over and above the effect of intentions. Moreover, behavioral intentions were shaped by academic achievement and by perceived academic ability, in addition to attitudes and perceived social norms. Finally, evidence was obtained that several variables in the model, such as gender and perceived parental encourage ment, have interactive effects on college plans and college attendance. The results lend support to Liska's (1984) argument that social-structural opportunities and resources must be considered when applying the Fish bein-Ajzen model to behaviors such as entry into higher education.

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There are two contending explanations for the apparent public/private differences in educational outcomes-the 'quality education' argument versus the 'selective-socioeconomic-recruitment' explanation. The quality education argument explains these differences in terms of between-system differences in the quality of the education offered. The selective-socioeconomic-recruitment explanation suggests that betweensystemdifferences in outcomes have more to do with what students bring to school than with what they find there. These competing propositions are examined by asking whether attendance at a Catholic or non-Catholic private school provides a net benefit with regard to educational achievement and attainment. The answers come from additive models which control for a variety of family, individual and school variables in order to examine the net effect of school sector. The evidence presented suggests that a good part of the observed between-sector differences in performance is attributable to between-sector differences in student attributes-but not all. In the case of schooling, stnall between-sector differences in achievement remain, along with sizeable betweensector differences in Year 12 graduation rates. For higher education, between-sector differences in participation rates favour the graduates of non-government schools but sectoral differences in completion rates are negligible. It is suggested, in conclusion, that parents who invest in their children's education in this way may be getting a return on their investment, though probably not as much as they think.

This paper addresses the question of why young people go on from school to higher education in Australia. A person-situation interactionist theory to explain decisions taken in the matter is developed, and in the light of this theory a model to predict entry to higher education is advanced. The model is tested using data from separate studies in two Australian States, Victoria and Queensland. Results of bivariate and logistic regression analyses are generally consistent with expectations from the model. Certain interactive effects of variables in the model upon entry to higher education are reported.