Understanding how prospective students make their final choices of colleges or universities is important to students, their parents, and to the institutions. When it comes to academically advanced students, or Honors students, there is a question as to whether the same factors are influential to their higher education decisions. The purpose of this study was to compare the responses of Virginia Tech Honors students with current literature to determine the influences associated with college or university selection between the two data sets. The methodology used in this study included qualitative focus-group interviews of Virginia Tech Honors freshmen who had been admitted into the Program for the fall semester of 1992 and had remained Honors eligible for the spring semester of 1993. six interview sessions were arranged for 50 students. An interview protocol was designed to ask six questions to the participants, focusing on how they made their final decisions to attend virginia Tech. Thirty-six students actually participated in the interviews. Six conceptual categories emerged from the interviews. These categories included: (1) Academic Programs; (2) Campus Atmosphere/Life; (3) Influential People; (4) Location; (5) Money; and (6) Recruitment. Seven conceptual categories were discovered in the literature. These categories were discovered included: (1) High School Grade Point Average; (2) Tuition; (3) Geographic Location; (4) Parental, Peer, and Alumni Influence; (5) Academic Reputation; (6) Job Placement; and (7) Campus Visit. The results from the study indicated that most students, regardless of their status, consider similar factors in their choices of colleges. Most important among the factors included the cost, campus visit, and reputation. / Master of Arts