The Fundamental Motivations approach suggests that humans are motivated to seek and maintain status. In Brazil, status can be acquired through professional advancement, as a result of access to higher education. This work investigated whether the status of the higher education course influences the choice of a profession; and whether factors related to the possession of resources influence this choice. A total of 810 individuals participated in the research; each took part in one of three studies. In the first study, 193 participants rated the status of different university courses. In the second study, 252 participants assessed the mate value, social status, and individual characteristics of stimulus subjects who had an academic background in low-status or high-status courses. Finally, in the third study, 365 undergraduate students provided information about their social class, status motivation, childhood environmental unpredictability, personality characteristics, and assessed the social status of the chosen course. The results indicated that courses related to personal urgencies are evaluated with higher social status. In addition, the diploma works as a marker of social and personality characteristics: stimulus subjects with a high-status diploma were evaluated with higher social status and socially aversive personality traits, while those with a low-status diploma were evaluated with pleasant and predictable personality traits. Finally, a positive correlation was found between higher education course status, status motivation and the Narcissism trait and a negative correlation between course status and the Psychopathy trait. This work expands the knowledge about status motivation and its influence on decision making outside the North American and European context. This information is important because career choice has a great influence on subjective and psychological well-being.