The premise of my presentation is this: As we know, the overall population of high school graduates in the northeast region of the U.S. is projected to decrease within the next decade while federal and state funding also continues to decrease. However, the number of Asian high school graduates is expected to increase. We also know that colleges and universities care about retention because it costs institutions money when students transfer outor drop outwithout attaining a degree. One strategy to increase retention is student engagement, which is integral to students persistence. Those who are engaged in these activities are more likely to persist and graduate from college. Student engagement was the area of focus that my research looked at. Specifically, the purpose of my study was to examine the engagement rates of first-generation and non-first-generation Asian American students at various types of institutions compared to their peers and to explore whether the engagement rate differed depending upon institution type.