Abstract The philosophy of the student college choice process has theoretically been centered in Hossler and Gallagher's (1987) three phases. As the concern for minority completion of higher education increases, there is a need to focus on the predisposition phase to determine what influences students' decision to attend college based on various background characteristics. This study will focus on those issues based upon student ethnicity. Many Americans have looked to higher education to provide a bridge to economic and social equity for this country's citizens who are lacking in these areas (Bowen and Bok 1998; Minnesota Private College Research Foundation 1994). This expectation is especially significant to ethnic minorities who traditionally have been under-represented in higher education, including African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans (Pavel 1999; Thomas 1998). At the present time, a dramatic shift is occurring in the nation's demographics among the college-age population. The number of minorities in this age group is increasing while the overall college-age population is decreasing. Consequently, it seems that such shifts would be advantageous to college-age minorities in achieving some degree of equity in this area (Horn and Maw 1995). The United States Department of Labor estimations of the year 2010 predict that 42 percent of the available job openings would require at least four years or more of college (U.S. Department of Labor 2000). However, historically, these three aforementioned under-represented minorities are less likely than their White and Asian American peers to pursue higher education (Thomas 1998). Even though college attendance within these under-represented groups shows increases (NCES 1996), the numbers seem to disproportionately lean toward two-year institutions as opposed to four-year institutions (Karen 1991). Thus, many of these groups continue to experience lower social status and economic prosperity (Horn and Maw 1995). The limited pool of qualified minorities is also going to be evident among higher education faculty, where as recently as 1994, minorities constituted only 12 percent of higher education's full-time instructional faculty while representing 26 percent of the United States' population (Compact for Faculty Diversity 1994). The lack of minority faculty will present additional problems to ethnic minorities pursuing higher education, because there will be a lack of minorities who would possibly serve as mentors, promote and encourage success in minority students, and provide a knowledge and research base on minority issues in higher education (Ibarra 1996; Seymour and Hewitt 1994). These are all critical issues, which if not addressed, will be detrimental to the success of many minority students including those who will enroll in graduate and professional programs upon the completion of an undergraduate degree. It is important that institutions of higher education address the under-representation of minorities in various undergraduate programs because ethnic minorities make up almost one-third of American residents (The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac 2000). One way to address this problem is to more accurately develop recruitment strategies for high school students in these ethnic minority groups. This study will be important in providing a picture of the most influential social and economic factors that were significant to minority students in their decision to attend college. Background Hossler and Gallagher (1987) stated that there are three phases of the college choice process for students considering college-predisposition, search, and selection. During the first stage, predisposition, students decide whether they will attend college, which is determined usually by background and attitudinal characteristics. Once the student decides to pursue postsecondary education, the student enters the search phase, which has been identified as the period during which the student actually begins to seek information about higher education institutions. …