Relationships were sought between selected background factors and college academic success of 186 male high school graduates of 1957 from five Wisconsin counties who attended college a minimum of one year. Background data came from high school academic records and by five questionnaires administered over a five year period. College academic data (first year overall grade point averages plus course averages) came from official transcripts. Findings included the following: (1) all high school academic factors, including grade point averages in language, pure science, mathematics, social science, and in all courses, correlated positively with corresponding college averages; (2) the 24 nonacademic factors as a group added relatively little to prediction; (3) those whose high school course interests were influenced by the challenging, stimulating, or problematical nature of courses earned significantly higher college averages; (4) those who had been interested in pure science and mathematics, surpassed other groups in college except the group indicating interest in high school language. (author/ly)