Research has consistently shown that investing in postsecondary education is an effective route from poverty and a key path to economic prosperity. National studies show that workers with postsecondary education have large hourly wage and annual earnings advantages over those without. However, there are substantial disparities in college enrollment across socioeconomic status. In 2011, 53, 58, and 80 percent of high school graduates from low-, middle-, and upper-income families, respectively, enrolled in college the fall semester after graduation. Moreover, 58 percent of black and 59 percent of Hispanic 2011 high school graduates enrolled in college the fall semester after graduation, compared to 66 percent of whites (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics 2011). To increase enrollment among historically underserved populations, public and private university systems have used both affirmative action in admissions and strategic financial aid. However, Hoxby and Avery (2013) point out that obstacles to college access for low-income and minority students often begin long before admissions officers make their decisions. Low-income and minority students often fail to apply for college despite high school and SAT performance that would merit admissions and the availability of financial aid. The studies in this panel address the important question of student selection into college application and enrollment from several different perspectives, providing a comprehensive view of influences on student admissions decisions from policy, families, and schools. Taken as group, the papers in the proposed panel provide policymakers with diverse perspectives on the obstacles to college application and enrollment including access to information about their own college readiness, ability to pay for college costs, expectations based on family norms, and the influence of high school inputs and peers. The papers address the effects of several policies that influence application behavior including reporting college readiness to students, tuition subsidies, graduation requirements, and admissions policy. These papers also reflect an important step forward in the literature on college access. Selection into college application is clearly an important step in access to college. In theory, families, schools, and universities will frame how a student views her own college readiness, thus influencing decisions about the costs and benefits of applications. However, prior studies typically rely on university administrative datasets of enrolled students, so research on application and admission behavior is limited. Three of the four studies in the proposed panel employ longitudinal data sets that begin in high school to enable observation of application behavior. This research will expand our theoretical understanding of college access by enabling observation of high school students passing the first frontier of enrollment by choosing whether to apply (2 papers), where to apply (1 paper), and whether to continue enrollment when tuition increases (1 paper). Two of the four papers specifically address college access for underserved populations (undocumented immigrants and Hispanics), to understand how policies affecting tuition and college readiness influence inequality in college access.