Reasons school psychology students choose to pursue a specialist or a doctoral degree were examined. A survey was mailed to 350 school psychology students whose names were provided by the National Association of School Psychologists. Survey items were subjected to a principal components analysis and scores from the resulting 10 scales were compared for specialist students and doctoral students (N = 189; 54% response rate). Specialist students obtained significantly higher scores than doctoral students on scales related to accessibility of programs, the influence of additional requirements for a doctoral degree, the desire to gain experience and begin their careers, and stress/difficulty. Doctoral students' scores were significantly higher than specialist students' scores on scales measuring prestige, a desire to improve knowledge/impact the field, and responsibilities characteristic of a university professor. No significant differences existed on scales dealing with financial issues, self-perceived prohibitions, and limitations of a doctoral degree. In addition, doctoral students obtained higher scores than specialist students on Mastery Motivation scale of the Career Motivation and Achievement Planning Questionnaire. Implications for graduate training are presented. (Contains 2 tables.)