There is an increasing need for student affairs professionals to understand the experiences of student athletes in higher education. The researchers asked: How do academic, athletic, and social experiences integrate to affect the freshman student athlete transition to college and impact their overall college experience? The results indicated that certain pre-college goals and expectations of student athletes influenced their experience as they transitioned into the college environment. From the thematic development of this study, three main themes emerged: (a) Pre-College Goals and Expectations; (b) Transition into the Institution; and (c) the Environment. The general conclusions of the study are presented according to the themes that emerged through the descriptive and focus coding processes. Experiences that were exclusive to one perspective were found not as significant to understanding the overall college experience of student athletes than experiences that shared a combination of two or all three of the perspectives.