This qualitative study used narrative methodology to investigate what becoming a scientist or engineer entails for Asian and Asian American college students stereotyped as "model minorities." We present the narratives of 23 high-achieving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college students who self-identified as Asian or Asian American as they focused on the social contexts in which they encountered racialized bias in their academic environments. This study was guided by epistemological and methodological assumptions and beliefs, which influence how the data were interpreted, analyzed, and reported and were based on a 5-step phenomenological research design. Results included how these students experienced, negotiated, challenged, and managed distress from externally imposed stereotypes. The students constructed personal narratives mediated by symbolic cultural systems to make meaning of their experiences, which more often disputed than confirmed the model minority stereotype. This research has larger implications for STEM college education programs throughout the United States, which should not simply accept the normalization of successful Asian STEM students without robust understanding of the stereotypes they endure.