“Oh, of Course I’m Going to Go to College”: Understanding How Habitus Shapes the College Choice Process of Black Immigrant Students Kimberly Griffin, Wilfredo del Pilar, Kadian McIntosh, and Autumn Griffin Pennsylvania State University Black students from immigrant backgrounds are a growing population in higher education. However, there is little research exploring their experiences as they make decisions about whether and where they will attend college. This qualitative study of 23 Black immigrants attending a public, selective research university explores how indi- vidual habitus, or worldview, shapes the predisposition, search, and institutional choice phases of college choice. Findings suggest participants’ habitus is strongly influenced by culture, prestige, and the value parents place on education. These forces pervade the college choice process, establishing students’ decisions to attend college early in their lives, as well as the emphasis placed on balancing prestige with financial accessibility in the search and institutional choice processes. Keywords: access, immigrants, college choice, Black students, habitus The population of immigrants in the United States has grown exponentially since the 1970s, rising from 9.6 million to over 26.3 million in 1997 (U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service, 1999) and continuing to increase 57% between 1990 and 2000 (Erisman & Looney, 2007). In 2005, most immigrants to the United States were Hispanic/Latinos (47%) and Asian/Pacific Islanders (24%) (Erisman & Looney, 2007), and these groups have been the focus of re- search and public discourse about the immi- grant experience in higher education. However, it is important to note that 8% of the immigrant population identifies as Black, and Black immi- grants from Africa and the Caribbean represent a growing proportion of the immigrant and Black communities in the United States (Eris- man & Looney, 2007; Kent, 2007). Roughly one fifth of the growth in the Black community between 2000 and 2005 can be attributed to immigration, and approximately 13% of all col- lege-age Blacks in the United States are the children of African or Caribbean/West Indian immigrants (referred to as second-generation Black immigrants) or are immigrants them- selves (referred to as first-generation Black im- migrants) (Kent, 2007). As the Black immigrant population grows and increasingly seeks access to U.S. colleges and universities, education leaders and policy- makers must become more aware of how these students are making decisions about attending college. Although some scholars argue that so- cioeconomic status, parental value of and em- phasis on education, and academic preparation make Black immigrants more likely than their peers to gain access to higher education (e.g., Bennett & Lutz, 2009; Massey, Mooney, Tor- res, & Charles, 2007), others note stark differ- ences in rates of college access for Black stu- dents from immigrant backgrounds on the basis of citizenship status, nation of origin, and time of migration (e.g., Erisman & Looney, 2007). Further, much like their U.S. counterparts, fi- nancial need and a lack of college preparatory information can present challenges as Black immigrant students seek to engage in the col- lege choice process (Erisman & Looney, 2007). Despite these challenges, we were unable to identify work that has explored the ways in which Black immigrant students perceive and experience college choice, nor whether and how individual-level factors, particularly cultural and immigrant background, influence this pro- cess. To address this gap in the literature and This article was published Online First May 7, 2012. Kimberly Griffin, Wilfredo del Pilar, Kadian McIntosh, and Autumn Griffin, Department of Education Policy Stud- ies, College of Education, Pennsylvania State University. Correspondence concerning this article should be ad- dressed to Kimberly A. Griffin, The Center for the Study of Higher Education, 400 Rackley Building, University Park, PA 16802-3203. E-mail: kimberly.griffin@psu.edu Journal of Diversity in Higher Education © 2012 National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education 2012, Vol. 5, No. 2, 96 –111 1938-8926/12/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0028393 96