Factors affecting college choice of beginning college freshmen were studied. The influence of academic background and performance of students residing in a metropolitan area was assessed from 1983 to 1986 with 33 institutions of a statewide university system. Using multivariate discriminant analysis, institutions attended were predicted using the following independent variables: Scholastic Aptitude Test verbal and mathematics scores, high school grade point average (GPA), and cumulative GPA. The analysis was performed for all students and for gender and minority status groups. For the sample of 187,923 students, it was possible to accurately predict college choice for 15% of the students, 16% for black females, 16% for black males, 14% for white females, and 17% for white males. The total structure coefficient from the discriminant analysis were similar across the five analyses. The findings support the conclusion that for students in general, institutional choice exhibits similar patterns across minority status and gender groupings. (SW)