The purpose of this study was to describe the degree of accessibility of all higher education institutions in the country and to estimate the proportion of various populations living within commuting distance of those colleges judged easily accessible or free-access institutions. The main idea was to put together an analysis of educational resources and demographic characteristics as one additional way of judging how higher education serves the population. Chapter 1 discusses the new meaning of equal opportunity and the developments of the 1960's that affected college admissions. Chapter 2 describes the procedure with which the degree of accessibility of all colleges was rated with respect to selectivity and cost, and how each free-access college with an appropriate commuting radius was plotted on detailed state maps. Chapter 3 is concerned with the colleges themselves -- how many and what types there are at each level of accessibility and where they are located. Chapter 4 describes the populations living within commuting distance of the free-access colleges. Chapter 5 describes the accessibility of higher education in each state, and the implication of the state profiles are discussed in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 considers the problem of relevance and suggests a framework for improving relevant educational opportunity. The final chapter summarizes the study. (AF)