PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Paperl (150) Reports

This report examines how students choose colleges and how the college choices of students differ by race and ethnicity across four subgroups of students: African American, Asian American, Chicano, and Caucasian. It is proposed that students conceptualize their college choices differently based on how they perceive their anticipated college experiences and the conversion capacity of their college degree for further educational and occupational attainment. Data were obtained from the Cooperative Institution Research Program's 1994 Freshman Survey. Data pulled from the survey were measures of capital endowment, past capital accumulation, college choice, and anticipated capital reinvestment and conversion variables. Results indicate common patterns of capital accumulation, conversion, and investment across the groups. Attending a more selective college was associated with submitting more colleg