The purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about how socio-economic conditions in different groups of students can affect students' perceptions of the subject of social studies. This was done by accounting for, analysing and discussing differences and similarities in perceptions of the subject of social studies between students in vocational and in tertiary preparatory programsin upper secondary school in Sweden. The data for this qualitative study was collected through focus group interviews and was thereafter thematically analysed. The results show that all students, regardless of program, find social studies important both for themselves and for the society as a whole. However, preferences regarding teaching methods vary between programs. Vocational programs tend to prefer shorter individual writing assignments while tertiary preparatory programs like to work both individually and in groups as well as both orally and in writing. There are also differences in how the programs view their use for social studies in the future. The vocational programs consider themself to have the most use for knowledge regarding economy while the tertiary preparatory programs believe they will have most use forwhat they have learned concerning the subject of individuals and identity. These differences can be explained by the student´s different capacities and different access to cultural and language capital as well as the real functions of the school system and cultural reproductionwhich are all due to socio-economic differences that exist between the students in vocationalprograms and the students in tertiary preparatory programs.