Determinants of school-to-work transition have been abundantly studied. But little research has been done on the influence exerted by non-academic involvement on the outcome of school-to-work transition. Yet, this issue is important. It often happens that equally qualified candidates applying for the same job do not have equal opportunity to get this job. One reason for this may be that though identical in terms of academic degrees and qualifications, candidates can be different as regards involvement in non-academic activities. For example, candidates may be more or less involved in family life, or some may have responsibilities in non-profit-making associations. Generally, candidates report these non-academic activities in their curriculum vitae, through family status and other information items. The question is whether non-academic involvement is taken into account by employers, and if it is, whether employers consider it positively or negatively. In terms of school-to-work transition strategy, and from the viewpoint of guidance, counselling and career planning, it is clear that non-academic involvement should be favoured and displayed if employers consider it positively, and should be kept un-revealed otherwise. To some extent, the issue of employers' analysis of non- academic involvement has been addressed from a theoretical point of view in the literature of statistical discrimination (for example Blau & Kahn, 1981; Ragan & Smith, 1982; Garcia-Minguez & Sanchez-Losada, 2003). According to Sattinger (1998), the main concern of employers when selecting among job applicants consists of excluding 'high-quit-rate' candidates, because quits are costly to firms (costs of finding and training a replacement). Since quit rates cannot be observed directly, employers divide applicants in two groups: a high-quit-rate group and a low- quit-rate group. In this approach, quit rates are considered as essentially depending on involvement in non-market activities: involvement in family life or in social activities increases the likelihood of quitting. There is statistical discrimination (and not simple discrimination) in this sense that error is possible in some individual cases: for example, some applicants considered as high-quit-rate workers may actually be low-quit-rate workers. But the important thing is that applicants considered as belonging to the high-quit-rate group can face stricter employment criteria; they can be allowed lower wages; they can get fewer interviews and can even be totally excluded from the recruitment process. Such discrimination can happen even if all candidates are equally qualified. Within this general framework, this paper is devoted to an empirical analysis of the influence of non-academic involvement on the outcome of school-to-work transition. The study is based on a survey of school-to-work transition of 500 graduates from 10 French universities. By use of linear regression analysis, we investigate the relationships between non-academic involvement and various characteristics of first professional integration. Non-academic involvement is represented by marital status, family size and time spent in non-profit- making associations, in sport or cultural clubs and in other leisure activities. First professional integration is characterised by variables like duration of unemployment before getting the first job, total duration of unemployment during the transitional period, total duration of short-term contracts during the transitional period, wages and status of the first jobs obtained during the transitional period. The transitional period is defined as the three years following obtaining university qualification. The first results suggest that the most significant non-academic determinant is marital status. This factor seems to have negative influence on the duration of the work contract and on status in the working place. The number of dependent children appears to have no influence in itself on the dependent variables considered in this study. It also seems that time spent in leisure activities has negative influence on wages all along the transitional period as well as negative influence on the duration of the first work contract. More detailed results will be presented and discussed. Implications for individual strategies and for guidance and counselling will be drawn.Short reference list BLAU F. D. & KAHN L. M. (1981), Race and sex differences in quits by young workers, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 34, 563-577.GARCIA-MINGUEZ P. & SANCHEZ-LOSADA F. (2003), Statistical discrimination and growth: should we subsidize discriminated against workers?, Economics Letters, 79(2), 255-261.RAGAN J. F. & SMITH S. P. (1982), Statistical discrimination as applied to quit behavior, Quarterly Review of Economics and Business, 22, 104-112.SATTINGER M. (1998), Statistical discrimination with employment criteria, International Economic Review, 39(1), 205-237.