Since the question of how WD foods may compromise students’ intention to pursue higher education is also of interest to non-academic audiences, we used a translational-research approach to provide evidence that can be translated from research and applied to practice and policy. Thus, we examined the relationship of nutritional quality of snacks with academic outcomes using functional cognition measures like grade point average (GPA), high school (HS) completion, and college entrance examination participation rates. Our decision to concentrate on snacks rather than overall diet or meals such as breakfast, lunch or supper was based on wanting to focus on food choices made by adolescents rather than consumption of foods over which they may have little volition. We hypothesized that students habitually eating unhealthy snacks would have lower grades and be less likely to complete HS and take college admission exams.