Empirical findings and theoretical conclusions of a Swedish study on students' identification with their parents and their choice of college studies are presented. Attention was directed to parental identification, parental dominance, and social class membership in a group of women who had just begun their studies during the fall 1976 term or the spring 1977 term. Fifty of the women students studied natural sciences, and 48 studied the arts. A structured interview method was employed that covered perception of sex-role and identity, problem-solving style, and psychological defensive structure. Depending on their self-assessed similarity to each parent, the women were classified in four categories: father-identified, mother-identified, mother- and father-identified, and undifferentiated. The analysis of the interview material indicated that the four categories basically reflected four different sets of family conditions, related to the parents' occupation, education, and social class, as well as their relative dominance and their respective decisionmaking competence. Women's educational choice is discussed as a manifestation of different personality strategies when confronted by male dominance, and education is discussed as a means of furthering efforts for women's emancipation. (SW)