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Introduction. With the change of generations, changes in the socio-economic conditions of life, global processes affecting local levels, the previously habitual mechanisms for the functioning of social institutions, in particular, education, also change. Restrictions on entry into the higher education system generate competition for state-funded places, and the USE mechanism is a key way to select the most talented and capable applicants. School graduates find other ways to universities because of the competitiveness and complexity of the Unified State Exam, along with the traditional trajectory of entering a university. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze the educational strategies that Russian school graduates choose, the factors that determine this choice, and the problems that give rise to the variety of educational trajectories of graduates. Materials and methods. The study was conducted using an online survey among first-year students of two Volgograd universities – Volgograd State University and Volgograd State Technical University in October 2022 (N=527), the task of representation by gender and age was not set. Methods: analysis of sources, online survey, scaling, mathematical statistics (calculation of arithmetic mean), analysis of frequency distributions, analysis of contingency tables. Results. The quality of preparation for the USE is provided not only by general education schools, but also by various forms of additional education, tutors, courses, online schools. The overall level of USE results in the Volgograd region, based on average values, fluctuates in the range of 45-55 points out of 100, while the average scores for admission to the studied Volgograd universities, which were included in the study area of the authors, are 66.4 and 68.7 points, and in the capital - much higher. However, as the analysis of empirical data shows, the decision to enter a university is made on the basis of a wider range of factors, including the territorial location of the university, family traditions, and the socioeconomic status of the family. A rational approach to the implementation of the educational strategy gives rise to the so-called. "transit" trajectory of entering the university after college graduation. Admission to an institution of secondary vocational education can be an intermediate stage (for example, the share of college graduates in full-time departments of universities in Volgograd is 13%, in Russia – about 21%), or be the ultimate goal of the educational trajectory. Conclusion. Admission to a university after the 11th grade brings to the fore the quality of education in schools and preparation for the Unified State Exam, as a tool for the competitive selection of applicants applying for state-funded places at a university. Entering a university after graduating from college is not the most popular strategy, but it avoids the procedure for passing the exam, since admission is based on the results of the university's internal exams. Entering college after the 11th grade is a forced measure and reflects the problems of limited access to higher education on a budgetary basis, competition among applicants, poor preparation for the Unified State Examination, low level of family well-being, etc.
Овчар et al. (Fri,) studied this question.