Stress amongst college students remains higher than in other adult populations (Moore, 2024). Threat appraisal was positively associated with burnout (Li et al., 2025); and burnout among college students was positively associated with stress (Olson et al., 2025). As perceived threat increased, test anxiety increased (Bai et al., 2025); and as test anxiety increased, so did perceived stress (Akçakese et al., 2025). Health threat appraisals during the COVID-19 pandemic were negatively associated with acceptance and gladness (Pellerin & Raufaste, 2020), and acceptance and gladness were negatively associated with stress (Soysa et al., 2021). This study examined mechanisms that could account for (mediate) the relationship between dispositional threat appraisal and stress in 244 first-year U.S. undergraduate students 1) in men and women (Women=59%) and 2) in first (FGCS) and continuing (CGCS) generation college students (FGCS=40%). Burnout, acceptance, and gladness (but not test anxiety), partially mediated the dispositional threat appraisal - stress relationship in both men and women. On the other hand, acceptance and gladness (but not burnout and test anxiety) partially mediated the dispositional threat appraisal - stress relationship in both FGCS and CGCS. Furthermore, the mediating effect of acceptance was greater for CGCS than for FGCS. In both hypotheses, dispositional threat appraisal was significantly associated with stress after accounting for the mediators, indicating they were partially supported. This study identified differential cognitive features that concurrently accounted for the emotional experience of stress in the social environment of college, informing targeted interventions that could decrease stress among college students.