Recent studies question students' learning gains on college campuses. Even though academic challenges are further complicated for first-generation college students who arrive at college under prepared, little is known about how these setbacks contribute to students' cognitive and behavioral study approaches in college. Situated within a culture perspective and drawing on semi-structured interviews with first-generation college students and course instructors, this study assesses how students contend with competing academic logics in the transition from high school to college. Findings reveal that students draw on high school scripts to fulfill college coursework demands regardless of how ill suited those scripts may be. Students are not motivated to modify or retool existing scripts unless they result in unsatisfactory academic outcomes. We argue that retooling decisions are contrived within incentive-driven frameworks and suggest that these cost-benefit approaches impact first-generation college students' academic growth opportunities in detrimental ways.