This study examined the problem of the professional and life self-determination of students enrolled in higher pedagogical educational institutions, with Ulianovsk Pedagogical University serving as the base. The objectives were the following: (1) to study the reasons that the students in the different stages of their schooling (the first and fifth years of study) chose the pedagogical profession; (2) to determine whether there was a functional relation between the student's motive for choosing the school teaching profession and his orientation toward pedagogical activity; (3) to discern the factors of the teaching and learning process in the institution that have an influence on shaping attitudes toward the pedagogical profession (level of satisfaction with the quality of the education received and level of academic progress); and (4) to determine the dynamics of the students' professional and life plans as they proceed from the first to the last year of study. This study found a definite connection between the respondents' social or external motives for choosing the profession of school teaching and their plans in life. However, it found no firm connection between the motive for choosing the profession of teacher and a real orientation toward school teaching. There is also no functional relation between students' level of satisfaction with the learning process and their professional self-determination. Moreover, it failed to confirm any direct link between the students' academic progress and any orientation toward the pedagogical profession. For many students, a key element in their professional self-determination during the stage of their professional training is their pedagogical practice teaching in school, in their fourth and fifth years of study. The factors that predetermine the professional and life self-determination of students in a higher pedagogical educational institution, as revealed in the survey, are found chiefly outside of the sphere of education.(Contains 1 table.)