Our schools are environments of race and class and these school environments structure opportunity based on race and class. This paper explores how students' lives and their access to postsecondary education are framed and structured by the influences of race and class. The college choice decision process of three female Black students from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds in three distinct high school environments are examined. One of the most important ways that schools foster the investment of various forms of capital in the course of students' educational careers is in the transition from high school to college. The data for this ethnographic study was collected over a nine-month period at three urban California high schools. At the private school, intensive support was provided for college admissions and students applied to selective colleges nationally. At the two public schools much less support was provided and applications were generally limited to within the state or to historically Black colleges. Analysis suggests that Black students from private schools are accruing higher social status and opportunities while the future status of Black public school students is lowered by their more limited college choices, regardless of their academic qualifications. (Contains 32 references.) (JLS)