Migration from mono-ethnical and remote regions of the Russian Federation to major educational centres in order to get education keeps growing in scale, however the maximum possible fultilltnem. of the educational potential_ of St Petersburg, for instance, faces a number of difficulties caused to a large extent by the European culture, strange as it may seem. The complicated process of adaptation to the conditions of life in a city which prospective and actual students have to undergo slows down the process of learning complicated educational matters. Moreover, the crisis moments of transfer from one educational environment into another, of moving from one place of living to a different one are sometimes accompanied by deviant forms of behavior. For motivated and goal-orientated prospective students, the mechanism of developing occupational identity serves as a basis for adaptation. This article focuses on research into specific features of occupational identity development amongst. prospective students coming to St Petersburg from mono-ethinical regions of the Russian Federation, taking lngushetia Republic as an example.