The underrepresentation of minority students in higher education is a serious problems facing colleges and universities across the nation. Regardless of the type of institution, all colleges and universities are encountering obstacles in recruiting and retaining minority students. Due to the large number of ethnic minorities in this country and the increasing number of ethnic minorities immigrating to the United States, one would think this would not be a problem. This project examined the motivational forces involved in encouraging students from different ethnic backgrounds to pursue a college education. This study was conducted at Middle Tennessee State University and Tennessee State University during the 2006-2007 and the 2007-2008 academic years. The instrument used in this project was the Factors Influencing the Pursuit of Higher Education Questionnaire. My hypotheses were that there was no statistically significant interaction effect of gender and ethnicity on the 10 subscales. The 10 subscales were college preparation, extended family support, financial aid concerns, glass ceiling effect, influence of mentors, locus of control, parental influence, peer support, presence of role models, and relative functionalism. It was also hypothesized that motivational factors were not statistically significant predictors of the level of college preparation of students. The experimental results did not completely support all of the hypotheses. There were statistically significant interaction effects of gender and ethnicity on parental influence and college preparation. It was also uncovered that the combination of the influence of mentors, peer support, and parental influence was a significant predictor of college pursuit.