Given low rates of student retention in community colleges, there has been growing interest in understanding characteristics that put students at-risk and that serve to buffer against academic difficulty. In particular, research on student success has focused on demographic predictors that are difficult to change, whereas motivational variables--that are malleable--require greater attention. In addition, studies have utilized variable-centered approaches, but in the present study, we use a person-centered approach to identify distinct motivational profiles informed by goal-orientation theory. With a large sample of community college students, we identified five clusters and found that high levels of mastery approach goals and moderate levels of performance-approach goal orientation were the ideal combination of academic motives for grade point average and persistence.