This national study compares the social and demographic characteristics of direct and delay entry students in a control group of 1551 students in higher education programmes in 1987 and 1990 with the national study group of 2295 students sampled in 1995. Using a specially constructed socioeconomic variable for comparison the analyses demonstrated a significant difference in the socioeconomic level of the household for the younger aged group but not for the mature aged group. There was also a significant difference between males and females in their age of entry patterns. Furthermore, there was a significant difference in the location of school attended for most of their secondary education for the younger aged group but not for the mature aged group. For both groups there was a significant difference in the number of siblings, the level of education attained by the mother and the income received by the mother in the households of the control and study groups. Logit analysis revealed that there was a significant interaction between the household variables: socioeconomic status, number of siblings, and income received by the mother of the respondents in the control and study groups for the younger age group but not for the mature age group. This interaction for the younger age group, plus the finding that nursing students were more likely to delay their Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) payment than other university students suggests that politicians need to take great care in any changes to current HECS payments as such changes could upset the delicate social balance that has been achieved in nursing recruitment in Australia.