Higher education is increasingly positioned as a private good for prospective students in England, through which they can hope to gain an economic return on their 'investment'. This paper offers new ways of thinking about the purpose of university study and the benchmarks of graduate success. Using Margaret Archer's understanding of the concept of reflexivity to analyse the decision-making of 16 high-achieving, working-class girls from the northwest of England, the paper highlights the varied concerns driving their applications to high-tariff universities. The girls have ambitious personal plans to materially improve their futures and leave themselves individually better off. Yet their decisions to apply to high-tariff institutions are not solely or primarily motivated by the promise of upward social mobility. Instead, as this paper explains, the girls are nurturing other concerns that inform their decision-making around a broader understanding of university's social goods. The paper argues, therefore, that more could be done to reframe entry into higher education outside of a market-driven and economically orientated approach, as part of a wider project where prospective students can establish their university intentions in line with their underlying values and concerns.