diff --git a/src/mred/wrap/mred.ss b/src/mred/wrap/mred.ss
index b08e69dd..5a11e72d 100644
--- a/src/mred/wrap/mred.ss
+++ b/src/mred/wrap/mred.ss
@@ -4491,8 +4491,8 @@
    [(title message choices parent init-vals style)
     (check-string 'get-choices-from-user title)
     (check-string/false 'get-choices-from-user message)
-    (unless (andmap string? choices)
-      (raise-type-error 'get-choices-from-user parent "list of strings" choices))
+    (unless (and (list? choices) (andmap string? choices))
+      (raise-type-error 'get-choices-from-user "list of strings" choices))
     (check-top-level-parent/false 'get-choices-from-user parent)
     (unless (and (list? init-vals) (andmap (lambda (x) (integer? x) (exact? x) (not (negative? x))) init-vals))
       (raise-type-error 'get-choices-from-user "list of exact non-negative integers" init-vals))