AIM To explore the psychological character, the psychological problem and the psychological adaptation of military and local undergraduates, in order to determine the difference of synthetic ability and development potential between the different university students. METHODS Two hundred and five undergraduates (88 from local university, 71 males, 17 females; 117 from military university, 97 males, 20 females), which was from 2 key institutes in Xi’an area, were examined on the spot by the MMPI B scale. The results were analyzed statistically. RESULTS Higher Hs, Pa, Pt, Sc, Ma, Si, In scores in the local undergraduate group suggested that the local undergraduates did. Higher To, Lp, Ac, Gr, Ie, Cs, Tp, Es, St scores in the military undergraduate group suggested that they add better psychological diathesis, adaptability, synthetic ability and development potentialities. CONCLUSION Personality characteristics, psychological diathesis, contingency ability and development potentialities of the military undergraduates are better than that of the local students. Overweight ecinomic and life burden, bad employment prospect of the local undergraduates might be the main causes of these psychological problems.