Mexican Americans have been native to the United States for centuries, but their educational attainment numbers reflect an achievement gap. This has led to increased poverty levels, low social capital, and low quality of benefits. One way to increase social mobility for a racial group is by increasing the number of bachelor's degree holders. Because high school lays the foundation for postsecondary attainment, it is important to study college access in high school to understand how students experience and interact with this information in preparation for applying to college. This qualitative case study looked at the student experience through data collected via open ended interviews. Data was analyzed using the Psychosociocultural Theory to account for the psychological, social, and cultural barriers that are unique to the Mexican American student population. A purposeful sample recruited from Valley High School included five female students who were in the 11-25% of their class rank, first generation to go to college, and Mexican American. The findings showed that the majority of the collected data indicated the psychological and social realms. Notably, the cultural realm did not contain substantial data. A total of seven themes were found ranging from their interactions with their peers to the value of sibling experiences. Implications for this study were gender related help-seeking behaviors for males and traditional culture roles for females. This study adds to the literature surrounding Mexican American students and their persistence to postsecondary education and shines a spotlight on the need to include student voices when creating college readiness programming in high school. [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.]