Previous work on implicit personality theory and the college student culture suggests that thinking about college student types should include academic involvement and social involvement dimensions. Further, positive and negative social, positive academic, and oppositional clusters of types were predicted based on studies of high school crowds. Using 85 college student type labels as stimuli, a free‐sorting method coupled with multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering analyses provided support for these hypotheses. Also, the results suggest convergence in the cognitive structure underlying perception of college student types across major demographic categories.

My Multiple Selves (MMS) is an open-ended self-concept measure that leads respondents to systematically explore who they are before selecting and rank-ordering their most important selves. A sample of college students ( n = 204) completed either the MMS or the frequently used Twenty Statements Test (TST). As predicted, results demonstrated that MMS responses included elements underdetected by the TST: other people, school crowd labels, aspirations for the future, and undesirable selves. Furthermore, the MMS revealed that when other people are included in self, they are rank ordered by participants as the most important element. Shortcomings of the MMS are discussed, and directions for future research outlined.