This study's main goal was to examine the impact of internal and external protective factors on resilience among college students. While much of the literature on resilience focuses on children and younger adolescents, there are relatively few studies that examine resilience levels among college students and the adult population in general. Specifically, this study examined the internal protective factors of optimism, self-efficacy, and dimensions of psychological well-being and the ways in which they predict resilience levels among college students. The effects of optimism, self-efficacy, and psychological well-being on college students' resilience levels were also hypothesized to be different between different genders and between different races. Data were collected in the spring and fall at a large southeastern university. A survey design was employed in this study to analyze resilience levels among a sample of college students. Multiple regression techniques were used to analyze the data. The results confirmed the protective effects of self-efficacy, external protective factors, and two dimensions of psychological well-being. Empirical evidence shows that some of the internal protective factors operate differently in explaining resilience among different racial and gender groups. Implications are discussed.