This qualitative study aimed to investigate the influences on 32 rural Iranian high school students' adoption of achievement goals. To this end, the high school students took part in individual semi-structured interviews. The outcomes indicated the high school students' goal orientation adoption was impacted by a host of significant individuals in four contexts: (1) school (e.g. teachers, classmates); (2) family (e.g. parents, relatives); (3) rural community (e.g. neighbors and rural university graduates); and (4) media (e.g. counselors on TV). Likewise, various factors (i.e. social, psychological, economic, educational, rural, biological and religious) also appeared to influence their achievement goal adoption. Results may have implications for various stakeholders such as educational authorities, policy makers, researchers and significant others (e.g. teachers, counselors, parents, among many others).