The Common Core State Standards were created with college and career readiness in mind to help prepare students to succeed upon graduation from high school. In this article, I examine college readiness as it has been described by both university mathematicians and educational researchers to precisely discern what will foster success in collegiate mathematics. This idea of college readiness is compared to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) to assess the degree to which they align with various mathematical aspects of college readiness. There is a strong alignment between what university mathematicians and educational researchers expect of college students and what the CCSSM expects of students. Faithful CCSSM-guided instruction has the potential to foster college readiness (and ultimately college success) in K-12 students.