A study of the conflict between conceptions of role and discrepancies between the ideal perceptions of role and reality among 296 graduate and student nurses suggests that, at graduation, inherent conflicts between professional and bureaucratic principles of organization are most seriously encountered. Those who express strong allegiance to bureaucratic and professional roles, simultaneously, also sense the greatest discrepancies between ideal conceptions and perceived opportunity to fulfil them-which is interpreted as evidence of their incompatibility. But, because of greater independence of collegiate programs from hospital administration, bureaucratic principles are less relevant there, while professional principles are stressed more than in the diploma program. There is evidence that diploma and degree graduates organize the bureaucratic-professional roles differently and adjust to conflict of roles in systematically different ways.