This report examines how students, especially those with high abilities, choose a college based on information from four areas: (1) published research comparing various schools' subjects as well as some unpublished comparative data from various sources; (2) young adult fiction that deals with issues related to college choice; (3) media accounts of college admission and college choice; and (4) conversations with other students in the process of choosing colleges. The report discusses the basis for the choices made by students, the other people who influence choice, what students and parents want to know about colleges and what they already know, and the financial and psychological costs associated with getting into college. The book concludes with observations about what is really known about college choice decisions, the problems with students' sources of information, behavioral considerations, and a discussion of some of the public interest and policy questions needing to be addressed. Contains 86 references. (GLR)