The four college years is the last important developmental period of a young person's life, and what happens then can and often does have substantial consequences. He can be awakened and fired up to develop himself and his talents, he can plod through largely untouched or unenlightened, he can be frustrated and turned off, he can transfer, or he can drop out. What happens to the majority is one of the last three. Aside from acquiring the credentials, the place where a person goes to college can make a vast difference in his life. A college education is also the most expensive product--aside from a house--that a parent can buy. How do intelligent students and their parents arrive at their decisions in making this costly and important purchase? Do they do some probing consumer research? Do they sample and test the merchandise? No. And unfortunately there is no Ralph Nader; indeed there is no consumer research available to the public in this vital field. There is much objective data in directories, but few guiding clues to reveal the hundreds of obvious or subtle differences in ambience, values, or character among colleges of the same level. For the parents or the student to fill the information credibility gap themselves would require more time and work than they could reasonably afford. The result is that the American family relies chiefly on the pig-in-a-poke plan of college selection, which is based on twenty myths that profoundly influence millions of college choices. On the whole, it is such bad consumerism that fewer than 40 percent of this fall's freshman class will still be in the same colleges on cap-and-gown day four years hence. These myths constitute a body of dogma accepted as gospel by the able and the mediocre student alike. This article discusses these myths, along with the reality on each, and offers some tips at the end on how not to let them jinx one's college choice.