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Margaret reluctantly goes back to her hometown with her brothers to deal with the sudden depression of their dad.

Talented but perennially down-on-their-luck, Lester Niles, a struggling African American comedian, and Tony Chang, a struggling Asian American actor, are best friends in Hollywood pondering the age-old question, "Why Am I Doing This?"

San wonders why he's dating the cute white girl. Rick can't deal with lesbians and wonders why he can't be an English major. Judy just wonders where the next party is. And Tonisha wonders why she is fighting her life to stay in school in the first place. Ah, just another day in the lives of some college freshmen. The award-winning freshmen follows the lives of four incoming freshmen from different backgrounds and different journeys: San Ling, a Chinese-American who is obsessed with pop-icon Billy Joel and loathes his Chinese side; Tonisha Watkins, an inner-city prodigy who struggles between being a pre-med student and paying the family bills; Rick Kennedy, a conservative East Coast transplant who wrestles with multi-cultural university life and dealing with a career choice he doesn't want anymore; and Judy Oz, a free-spirited party girl who takes on the college social scene until it spirals out of her control. We follow the four as they meet and interact in a history discussion class, as well as watching their stories as they continue, with and without each other, outside the classroom. The film depicts the poignant moments in their first quarter of school that forces them to grow up bit by bit; sometimes it is painful, but often it is humorous and touching, the of sum of which adds up to a major turning point in their lives.