The present study explores potential risk and resiliency factors for psychological well-being and academic achievement in an ethnically-diverse sample of first-semester nontraditional college students. Hypotheses were based on proposed relationships between background variables of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and gender, with mitigating current circumstances of recent stressful life events (SLEs) and coping strategies, in the prediction of psychological and academic functioning in adulthood. Method: A sample of fifty (50) respondents (Mean age =34.6 years) completed the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Questionnaire (Felitti, Anda, Nordenberg, Williamson, Spitz, Edwards, Koss, & Marks, 1998), the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes & Rahe, 1967), COPE Inventory (Carver, Scheirer, & Weintraub, 1989), and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) (Derogatis & Spencer, 1982). Participants' first- and second-semester grade-point averages were also examined. Results: Participants reported extensive ACE histories, with prevalence rates up to ten-times higher than in the ACE Study (Anda et al, 2006), as well as levels of psychological symptomatology much higher than normative samples (Derogatis, 1977). Physical abuse appeared as a predictor of psychological symptoms in adulthood, specifically within the realms of depression and anxiety, while experiencing four or more ACEs tended to predict higher depression levels. Stressful life events in adulthood were unrelated to psychological symptoms and academic functioning. Discussion: This study draws attention to the rampant levels of adverse circumstances in childhood in urban settings as well as their potential psychological sequelae. It illustrates the powerful role of childhood adversity over current life circumstances in predicting psychological and academic functioning in adulthood.