This qualitative, phenomenological study explored how transition challenges affect Chinese international undergraduate students' persistence in U.S. higher education institutions and identified the types of support schools should provide to improve students' persistence. This study conducted semistructured, open-ended interviews via telephone with 12 Chinese citizens who had subscribed to receive information from the Education Consulting Company in California, United States. Students were eligible to participate in the study if they were 18 years of age or older, studied in the United States under an F1 visa during the 2019/20 academic year, and were dismissed or dropped out from their original schools during the same year. A document review was undertaken to analyze public domain information available on the websites of the first and second U.S. colleges attended by the participants. The finding of this study identified eight transition challenges that collectively impeded the participants' ability to persist in their studies at U.S. colleges, including difficulties in adjusting to U.S.-China relations, U.S. culture, language barriers, differences in teaching methods, academic requirements, immigration laws and policies, local laws and regulations, and campus integration. As well as highlighting areas where schools lacked support for international students from the participants' perspectives. This study provided five recommendations for higher education institutions to better serve and retain Chinese international students. It recommended that U.S. higher education institutions use the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education's Self-Assessment Guide to design and implement a program-level assessment to enhance their International Student Program and Services comprehensively. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]