This article offers a five-level variable that highlights the level and the consistency of a student's educational "anticipations," and tests the explanatory power of this approach to the histories of traditional age community college students using the postsecondary transcript files of the NELS:88\2000 longitudinal study. In logistic models of the likelihood of (a) attending a 4-year college at all and (b) earning a bachelor's degree, the "anticipations" built from responses to pairs of questions asked in grades 10 and 12 played a modestly positive role, along with academic momentum coming forward from high school. When the universe is confined to those who entered community colleges within seven months of high school graduation and the educational anticipations questions asked again two years later, 19 percent raised expectations to the bachelor's level, 59 percent maintained them at that level, and only 7 percent lowered expectations. The maintenance of bachelor's expectations increased both the probability of transfer and bachelor's degree completion, reinforced by the number of credits earned in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in the first two years of community college attendance. These and allied findings undercut a key support for the "cooling out" hypotheses applied to traditional-age students who start out in community colleges.