This study relates the personal characteristics, high school experiences, and college experiences of students pursuing a baccalaureate degree to the type of institution they attended and their ethnicity. Multivariate analysis was performed on data drawn from the High School and Beyond database. Summary conclusions include the following: (1) minority students, with the exception of Asian Americans, are slightly more likely than Whites to enroll in a public institution; (2) overall completion rates are not very high for any minority group; (3) those students who began college right after high school were most likely to complete a degree; (4) students are most likely to drop out in the first semester of the first year; (5) Asian Americans, Whites, and to a lesser degree, African Americans were more likely to persist if they attended a private institution; (6) socioeconomic status did not seem to have a direct effect on the persistence of Hispanics, but did influence the other groups to varying degrees; (7) academic ability as measured on high school achievement tests had a strong effect on persistence, with the exception of African Americans; and (8) grants and family assistance were the most common forms of first-year financial aid for all ethnic groups, with the exception of African Americans who were more likely to have loans rather than family assistance. Statistical data are included on 19 tables. A 37-item bibliography is appended. (FMW)