Research has shown that Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) report more academic pressure than other racial groups in the United States, and several factors have been proposed to explain this, including high parental expectations, cultural emphasis on academic achievement, and the "model minority" stereotype (i.e., the notion that AAPIs are naturally intelligent and hardworking, and that they are well-to-do and encounter few problems; Sue et al., 2007). Racism has also been speculated as a driving factor behind AAPIs' high academic stress in that they may see academic achievement as a way to enhance social status and counteract racial ostracization. As high as 76.9% of AAPI students reported experiencing daily racial discrimination (Chen et al., 2014) and experiences with racism and discrimination have been linked to higher psychological distress (Yoo et al., 2010). Given AAPI students' high academic performance pressure (i.e., obtaining high GPA), racism context, and psychological distress, we examined three aspects of potential psychosocial resource for AAPI students: academic encouragement (potential-focused encouragement; challenge-focused encouragement), peer social support, and university belonging (relations with faculty/staff; university support/acceptance). In a sample of 1072 AAPI college students, we found that higher levels of perceived potential-challenged encouragement, peer social support, and university support/acceptance predicted lower depression, after accounting for the effect of racism on depression. However, higher levels of challenge-focused encouragement predicted higher depression, while relations with faculty/staff did not predict depression. Finally, we found that higher depression longitudinally predicted lower GPA and that relations with faculty/staff and peer social support, respectively, buffered the harmful effect of depression on GPA. Neither dimension of academic encouragement, however, buffered the effect of depression on GPA. The findings highlight the importance of fostering students' relations with faculty/staff and peer social support as avenues for protecting AAPI college students from low GPA when they experience depressive symptoms.