The mean levels of educational expectations of American high school students have increased over the past generation; individual educational expectations change as students mature. Using the National Education Longitudinal Study and the Education Longitudinal Study, we examined simultaneously the changes in individuals' expectations from 10th to 12th grade, and how these students' revisions of their expectations changed across cohorts. The results indicated that today a bachelor's degree is the normative expectation. Further, the class of 2004 decreased their expectations more often than they increased them, in opposition to the trend in the class of 1992. Finally, inequality between social classes in forming higher educational expectation has been maintained across generations, and growth in academic skills tested and encouragement from family, school, and peer groups is associated closely with changes in expectations.