Using a sample from the Korean Education Employment Panel(KEEP), this study attempts to
explore the influence of significant others on educational aspiration of high school students. As a
result of multinominal logistic regression analysis, with a group of students that have aspirations to
graduate from university as the reference category, their own academic achievement, place of
residence, private education expenditures, support of mother, and friends' academic achievement were
found to be statistically significant factors for students when deciding a target educational level of
junior college or less. In contrast, their own academic achievement, ego-identity, family income,
private education expenditures, and existence of meaningful teacher were found to be deciding factors
for students who aspire for a master's degree and other subsequent degrees.
Meanwhile, there was a significant difference between male and females students in the factors
that influence their educational aspirations. In particular, the person who influenced their educational
aspirations was different between the genders. When compared to students who aspired to attend
university, male students whose target education level was junior college or less were influenced by
low academic achievement of their friends. For female students, however, insufficient support from
their mother was the major factor that led them to lower their educational aspirations. Finally, this
analysis showed that the economic status of the family is a much greater restricting factor for
females than males when it comes to aspiring for a master's degree and beyond.