Asian American educational achievement is enshrined by a narrative that Asian students are uniquely positioned to excel academically due to inherent skill and cultural norms. The “model minority myth” obscures substantial variation in the lives and academic successes/ challenges experienced by Asian American students and is used to uphold a broader belief in meritocratic competition1. This research looks to contextualize these stereotypes of academic success at Cornell to further understand how students grapple with their identity development.