The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding for the experience of enrolling in a community college through the lived experience of high-achieving, low-income students. Prior research highlighted the disparate enrollment behaviors of HALI students. In particular, HALI students disproportionately attended open-access, for-profit, and less-selective institutions, whereas their academic credentials afforded them access to more selective and even elite institutions. This behavior underlines the academic undermatch phenomenon, where a student has earned the academic standards to go to a more selective institution than the one which they choose to enroll. Carnevale and Van Der Werf (2017), approximate that 86,000 high-achieving, low-income students chose to forego enrollment in a selective institution, for which they met the academic credentials. While there exists research on low-income students from a broader lens, as well as quantitative studies highlighting intervention strategies for HALI students, little research has been conducted from a qualitative methodology on this student population. As a result, this interpretivist phenomenological inquiry examined the information, and internal and external factors, which impact a high-achieving, low-income student's decision to enroll in a community college. This qualitative research utilized an interpretivist phenomenological methodology to gather data from semi-structured interviews with 10 high-achieving, low-income students. This study concluded that a high-achieving, low-income student's decision to enroll in a community college is made while lacking necessary details. Specifically, HALI students often lacked critical guidance from academic advisors and details on the cost of attendance. High- achieving, low-income students also made their decision having to balance what's best for them and their families, while taking into account important factors, such as distance to family, affordability, future educational plans, and a sense of belonging. This research is significant for a wide variety of educational practitioners. For K-12 school counselors, the current study offers insight into the type of advising most impactful for high-achieving, low-income students. The current study provides an avenue for marketing and recruiting HALI students at community colleges, pointing out a unique opportunity available to through an honors program. The current study also offers factors which four-year institutional practitioners must realize to attentively recruit HALI students. [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.]