&NA;A sample of 144 senior nursing students from four baccalaureate schools in the New York metropolitan area was used to study the relationship between self‐actualization and the baccalaureate nursing student's response to stress. Levels of self‐actualization and state and trait anxiety were measured at a time defined as low in stress; state and trait anxiety were measured again at two high‐stress times. Instruments used for the study were Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory and the Spielberger et al. State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory. The three phypotheses were supported by significant results (p <.05), confirming the prediction that level of self‐actualization is a factor in the differential perception of evaluative events as stressful. Findings are considered applicable to the revision of recruitment and selection procedures and to incorporating in baccalaureate nursing curriculums measures more likely to produce graduates who can sustain the personal values prerequisite to a professional level of nursing practice.