Attrition is a consistent feature of higher education--only about half the students who start college will ever receive a degree. The attrition rates of African-American students is even higher than that of their white counterparts. Attrition in general, and especially that of high risk students, is of great concern to university administrators and others who believe a college education contributes to general success in life. Vincent Tinto is the most prolific, and possibly most respected, of the theory-based college attrition researchers, but his model, which focuses on the integration of students into the college environment, has been criticized for not addressing the experiences of minority, and other non-middle class, students. The subjects in this study were 20 African-American students who returned to college after their first year and 18 African-Americans who left college for at least one semester after they began. In-depth interviews were conducted with each subject. Among the topics covered: Why did they decide to attend college? What have been their experiences of the college environment? And for those who left: What influences, including outside pressures such as family obligations and their financial situation, affected their decision to leave college? Results suggest that the central concept in Tinto's model, social integration, is not the key to these students' college experience. Among persisters and those departers who returned to college, their own determination to finish seems to be the key factor--a resolve that appears to result largely from their belief that a college degree is the only means of achieving their ultimate goals for career and life satisfaction. Most students who departed college faced significant life challenges such as child bearing and financial difficulties.