This article examines the high school search activities, choices, and final assignments of academically similar, but ethnically and socioeconomically different, eighth-grade students attending one New York City middle school. Despite being comparable candidates for admission to academically competitive high schools, the middle-class children of Asian immigrants were significantly more likely than the children of lower-income Latin American immigrants to be assigned to the highest performing schools. Interviews with 15 students revealed systematic differences in their knowledge, resources, and engagement in high school choice that help explain the disparity in the academic quality of their high school assignments.