The continuous influx of international students to the United States brings a diverse set of needs that colleges and universities should continuously attempt to satisfy with appropriate services and instructional practices. Issues affecting globally mobile students need to be addressed for institutions to attract and retain talented and academically successful international students. The purpose of this study is to reveal the experiences and changes in international students' academic values and beliefs as they become students in the U.S. I conducted a comparative type of collective case study to gather data from 15 students and alumni from different cultures to reveal the similarities and differences of their experiences. Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviews. The interview protocol included closed and open-ended questions. A review on the literature was conducted to determine current knowledge and work undertaken on the topic. Interaction with the literature continued, especially in the later phases of my grounded theory study. The articles were treated as data, which is characteristic of grounded theory development. The existing review was reexamined, and new literature was integrated into the study as concepts emerged. Thematic findings were created during the inductive analyses of categories and coded data. As the research continued, slightly more abstract concepts were then developed through axial coding. This included looking for themes that occurred across the interviews. Five main themes occurred across the interviews. During the final stage of coding (i.e., selective coding), I refined the major theoretical categories and identified attaining growth the central idea (or core category) of the grounded theory. I defined attaining growth as the process by which an individual's character or abilities are gradually developed. The resulting theoretical model has two major components. The top component shows the general theory, and the bottom component shows contingencies that might be needed to adjust or individualize the model. There are four strategies for adaptation and evolution that international graduate students adopt as they seek growth. To grow socially, academically, and professionally, the participants used strategies that can vary under specific conditions of relational self-concept (before-focused and during-focused) and the level of contingency (individual and contextual). The grounded theory constructed in this dissertation helps explain how international graduate students adapt to their new environments and how they can evolve to attain growth. The framework can be used by researchers and practitioners to understand the ways globally mobile students interpret and respond to new social and academic situations. The analysis of the diverse academic experiences and cultural backgrounds should also be useful for instructional designers in higher education developing learning experiences that meet the needs and expectations of the international student population. [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.]