The Asian American population is expected to grow to 46 million by the year 2060. Historically seen as a monolithic group, there are more than twenty subsets that make up the Asian-American demographic. The five Chinese and five Indian participants in this study belong to the top two Asian-American origin groups. This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the parental expectations, cultural, familial, academic, and racialized experiences of ten Asian American first-year female (AAFF) collegians. The purpose of the study was to identify risk characteristics during a critical transition period for retention purposes and to foster diversity support. Additionally, this study aimed to provide a missing view into the nuances of a?critically understudied group. Several theories have explored the impact of culture, gender, family, and ethnicity on identity development and overall satisfaction and assimilation; this study used Accapadi's Point of Entry (POE) Model as the conceptual framework for organizing and conducting the study. The data were collected via five surveys administered over the course of five months, as well as one follow-up interview per participant during the sixth month. In considering the phenomenon of AAFF collegians navigating through this transitional time, six key themes emerged: excessive expectations, positive and negative impacts of expectations, difficult classroom experiences, issues with adaptation to campus life, academic challenges, and issues with institutional satisfaction. This study may serve as a foundation for further research relevant to retention and DEI initiatives. Furthermore, applying the findings from this study may prove significant to enrollment administrators, faculty, and student affairs practitioners for bolstering campus and societal sustainability. Finally, the findings support the researcher's recommendation that Clery Act data collection reporting be revised to include broader definitions of ethnic and racial groups, in order to better support targeted populations. The implications of this study have the potential to support many underrepresented groups, and especially the Asian-American community. [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.]