The status of women enrolled in collegiate and noncollegiate schools in spring 1976 and social and economic characteristics of these students are examined, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 1976 Survey of Income and Education. For students who were dependents, information is presented on their families. Findings include the following: over 5 million women were enrolled in college in spring 1976, and they comprised 45 percent of the total college enrollment; the economic and social characteristics of women and men college students were very similar; women had about the same rates as men for being financially dependent on their parents, working while attending school, and attending college but not completing 4 years; 60 percent of all women students and 56 percent of all men students attended college full time; enrollment rates for women and men were similar except in the age bracket 22 to 34 years, in which a smaller proportion of women were enrolled in college; a larger proportion of women independent college students were in the highest income category compared with men independent college students; 8 percent of women independent college students and 4 percent of men independent college students were living below the poverty level; among those independent full-time undergraduate students who worked, women earned less during the year than men; nearly one and a half million women 16 years old and over were enrolled in noncollegiate schools; and 16 percent of women independent noncollegiate students were living below the poverty level, double the proportion of men independent noncollegiate students. (SW)