Student engagement is a widely used approach for evaluation of the quality of higher education in many countries, because it is considered as a proxy for student learning and academic outcomes, especially when direct measures are unavailable. Pre-college characteristics can affect student engagement and should be taken into account when this approach is employed. However, little is known about how such pre-college characteristics, like reasons to enter higher education, affect student engagement at university. The article is aimed to explore the links between reasons for university enrolment and two types of "academic engagement" (class engagement and disengagement), and two types of "extra-curricular engagement" (organisational work and research engagement). The data of an undergraduate survey conducted at eight highly selective Russian universities (n = 4926) is utilised. Our research found that reasons related to job placement and becoming a professional positively correlate with a student's commitment to academic work, while extracurricular engagement is associated with intrinsic motives, social reasons, and desire for career promotion. Educational policy for enhancing student engagement should meet the students' diverse goals at university and provide them with the intrinsic value of extracurricular experience, particularly when curricular activities are limited to preparation for narrow specialisation.