The study examines the role of personality traits and the need for cognition in predicting life satisfaction. We evaluated a sample of 235 students at a state university in Chile, using the Five-Factor Inventory (ICF-UTA), the Need for Cognition Scale (NCS) and the Scale of Satisfaction with Life (SWLS). Results suggest significant relationships between life satisfaction, and neuroticism (-0.4), conscientiousness (0.29), agreeableness (0.34) and the construct of need for cognition (0.32), which together explain a significant percentage of variance in life satisfaction of students.