African-American students continue to face high attrition rates in graduate education. The goal of this thesis project was to gauge perceptions of the challenges those students face in graduate school at Iowa State University, a major land-grant institution in the Midwest. Focus groups were conducted and revealed several important themes, as follows: communication, funding and resources, peer/faculty mentoring, connectivity vs isolation, contributions from fellow graduate students and drive and expectations of self. Two key concepts that emerged from the focus group discussions were self-efficacy and social capital. The participants recommended better communication with university executives, department faculty as well as student peers. Additional recommendations for the success of African-American graduate students across the university are also offered.