The Influence of Socio-Economic Status among Matriculation Students in Selecting University and Undergraduate Program

This paper discusses the influence of socio-economic status (SES) among matriculation students’ on their decision in selecting university and undergraduate program. The research was conducted at two local matriculation colleges and 496 students were participated as respondents. The findings showed that low SES students have stronger determination to pursue their studies at tertiary level compared to high SES students. However, both the low and high SES students showed similar trend of perception towards Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) reputation and its engineering program. There is no significant difference between the two groups in the criteria selecting university and course program.