Mexican American college students' views about the context influencing their decision to persist or leave the university were studied. Two sociologies of everyday life, symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology, guided the inquiry. Perceptions of college-going behavior before and during the freshman year were obtained from 18 students and former students. Interviews were conducted 8 to 11 months following the freshman year. Students thought over their lives and recounted experiences related to their own and others' college-going behavior. For each experience, students described ways that others were involved in the experience, as well as their own perceptions. One type of college-going behavior of the Mexican American students was distinguished as pre-matriculation or "getting ready" and included: initial expectation engendering, fraternal modeling, mentor modeling, indirect simulation, and direct simulation. A second type of college-going behavior, post-matriculation or "getting in" behaviors/attitudes, encompassed perceptions of the college: mass, distance, and complexity of the physical surroundings and social and academic environment. Conclusions are offered concerning the effects on persistence of background variables, anticipatory socialization, social integration, and cognitive maps. Four pages of references conclude the report. (SW)