This paper examines the assumptions that a person's ethnic identity is equal to his/her national identity by looking at the stories of seven Korean American college students and their ethnic sense of self. It explores the lives and stories of these students as they refine what it means to be Korean American persons through social interactions with non-Korean American students as well as amongst themselves. These students used two labels to describe who they are, Korean American and Asian American. The label of Korean American had two very different meanings: Koreans in the United States and Americans with Korean heritage. Also, most of the participants felt that using a label to describe themselves was very limiting. Several participants used more than these two labels. This suggests that equating one's ethnic identity with national ancestry may not best explain the Korean American students' ethnic sense of self. Some students used the pan-ethnic label of Asian American. This challenges the primordial view on ethnic identity, since Asia is not their national origin. The findings suggest that the ethnic sense of selves for the Korean American students is multi-dimensional and dynamic. An ethnic person may identify the self by using different labels, and different social environments may highlight a different part of the ethnic sense of selves. (Contains 20 references.) (ADT)