Critics of the college-for-all ethos argue that it encourages low-achieving adolescents to develop unrealistically high expectations. This argument posits that low-achievers waste time and money, and risk disappointment and self-recrimination, pursuing college when they are unlikely to complete it. The present study uses two national data sets--Add Health and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979--to test the proposition that expecting to earn a bachelor's degree (BA) puts low-achieving students at risk of disadvantageous early adult outcomes. Youth reported their educational expectations in high school, and their income-to-needs ratios and depressive symptoms were measured approximately a decade later. Results in both data sets suggest that the expectation of a BA was advantageous for all students, regardless of achievement level. Low-achievers who expected to earn a BA had higher educational attainment, higher income-to-needs ratios, and fewer depressive symptoms than low-achievers who did not expect to earn a BA.