The authors report TLC measurements of terminally functionalized (-COOH and -OH) polystyrenes on alumina and silica thin layers as a function of molecular weight. The results obtained suggest that trends in adsorption as a function of molecular weight, solvent strength, nature of the end group, and nature of the surface can be learned in detail from information obtained by this simple technique. As the molecular weight increases, however, entropic loss becomes important, and depending on the strength of the end group interaction, at some sufficiently high molecular weight the polymer behaves as though there is no end group.