Higher education research highlights the difficulties students face when transitioning from a junior college to a traditional university. This study explored a gap between junior vs. traditional university students' academic self-efficacy beliefs. This study also controlled for the effects of the student role-identity and academic performance on academic self-efficacy. Results found that junior college students experienced lower academic self-efficacy beliefs despite having higher overall grade point averages. Additionally, junior college students reported that their student role-identity was less important to them compared to students at the large public university. Findings suggest that structural disadvantage at the institutional level of higher education reproduces inequalities found in society at large.