A student's academic success depends on many factors, including aptitude, effort, personality traits, and social and financial situations. This analysis examines the impact on academic performance in the short-term and long-term, measured by course grade and grade point average, respectively of grit, ethnicity, gender, financial stress, and being a first-generation college student. Our results indicate that in the short run, grit had a positive impact on the course grade for non-first-generation college students, but grit and hours worked had negative effects for first generation college students. In the long run, financial stress and being an African American had significant negative effect for both first generation and non-first-generation college students.