Academic achievement is a known predictor of career trajectory and future earnings. Thus, a great deal of research has been devoted to understanding the variables that impact academic achievement. The purpose of the current study is to extend existing scholarly work by examining the predictive power of both cognitive and noncognitive variables on first-year academic achievement of students at a military college. We focus on the concepts of grit and person-environment (P-E) fit as our key noncognitive predictors of success. We investigate if grit affects academic achievement and if it operates differently for men and women. Given the unique educational setting of our study, we capture a P-E fit by examining whether a student is a recipient of an ROTC scholarship. Our empirical results suggest that grit has a positive effect on college grade point average for male participants but not a significant effect on female participants. Furthermore, we find that ROTC scholarships, as a proxy for fit, positively predict first-year academic achievement. These findings have policy implications for admissions and financial aid offices as well as teachers and support staff.