Research suggests that numerous factors affect community college attendance. Therefore, when students choose to attend community college, those factors often are key aspects of their decisions. Nonetheless, limited information exists that identifies which particular traits affect community college choice and how the background characteristics of students impact those qualities. Hence, this study evaluates how well academic and institutional factors as well as the character traits of students influence the decision to attend community college. The purpose of this study was to conduct a path analysis assessment of the academic and institutional factors that impact community college attendance and program enrollment. Data were collected from the 2005 Freshman Survey administered by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP). Path analysis modeling was used to analyze these data to determine which academic and institutional factors influence community college choice and to see how background characteristics moderate those traits. The results of this study yielded several positive correlations and, therefore, indicated significant relationships between community colleges and academic, institutional, and background characteristics and their ability to successfully predict community college attendance. This study also revealed that both academic and institutional factors affect community college attendance. However, it was evident that regression models with certain academic factors predicted community college attendance more accurately, where models with institutional factors possessed more statistically significant factors. Further, this study revealed that background character traits did not affect community college choice as much as previously assumed. Hence, the ability to predict community college attendance should be enhanced as a result of the findings of this study. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]