Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Each year thousands of international students enroll in universities across the United States of America. However, we know very little about the challenges they encounter to become competent intercultural communicators in the American academic system. Therefore, the purpose of this is to use the basic components of Deardoff’s Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) model to explore the challenges international students face to acquire requisite attitudes, knowledge, and skills to achieve ICC. The study was conducted through in-depth interviews with eight foreign students who were enrolled in a large Midwestern university during the time of this study. Participants described about their experiences with the intercultural communication that took place between them and their American peers and professors. Results the thematic analysis revealed the presence of four main themes and several sub-themes.