Career and technical education (CTE) programs are diverse. But, historically, they have all carried a common stigma: They are not academic. CTE has traditionally been seen as an alternative to academic programs. This nonacademic stigma brings on a stereotype, especially for high schoolers: Students in CTE programs are unmotivated, uninterested in learning, and unfocused. The authors answer the following questions: (1) What truth is there in this stereotype? and (2) Are students who lack the noncognitive skills generally associated with academic success (e.g., motivation, persistence, self-control, and conscientiousness) more likely to take CTE courses? The article draws on data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, a US Department of Education survey that followed more than 15,000 American 10th graders for a decade, from 2002 through 2012. The data contain measures of noncognitive skills, such as student self-reports of self-efficacy in academics, teacher reports of student behavior, and observed levels of student conscientiousness and self-control (as measured by survey effort). The authors examine two groups of CTE students: students in traditional comprehensive high schools who take CTE courses and students who enroll in stand-alone vocational-technical schools. Their analysis compares these groups of students to students who took few to no CTE courses in high school. The found that CTE course takers have on average higher noncognitive skills, compared to otherwise-similar students.