Traditionally, blacks have been underrepresented in scientific and technical career fields, focusing instead on people and service-oriented careers. To investigate the relationship between career aspiration and various environmental influences (e.g., academic preparation and intellectual orientation, science-oriented hobbies, math and science courses, career information and guidance, and occupational role models), 254 black college students (111 in traditional career field programs, 143 in nontraditional career field programs), from five different colleges) completed a questionnaire assessing these influences. An analysis of the results showed that non-traditional aspirants, in addition to having higher Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores: (1) attended private, parochial, and public schools for the academically gifted; (2) were enrolled in a college preparatory curriculum; (3) participated in science activities and hobbies; (4) received more encouragement to pursue mathematics and science, and received less discouragement concerning the pursuit of math and science from parents, teachers, and counselors; (5) took greater numbers of math and science classes and had better science and math high school facilities; and (6) had more non-traditional occupational role models than their tradition-oriented peers. The findings suggest the importance of having students take a variety of math and science courses beyond the minimum requirements to ensure that they are not pre-selected out of math and science occupations and in order to develop nontraditional occupational role models. (BL)