Many ethnic/racial health disparities raise questions about differences in stress hormone secretion. Ethnicity and educational level have been found to affect salivary awakening cortisol levels. Salivary cortisol reflects the biologically active unbound (free) fraction of the circulating hormone, and correlates strongly with plasma free cortisol. Salivary cortisol was collected from 23 doctoral nursing students and instructors and analyzed by enzyme immunoassay (Salimetrics LLC, State College, PA). Subjects were instructed to withhold food, drink, smoking and oral hygiene for 1 hr and alcohol consumption for 12 hr before sampling. Cotton balls were held in the mouth until saturated; saliva was expressed into collection tubes and immediately assayed in duplicate. Optical density was measured with a microtitration plate reader (VICTOR³ Multilabel Plate Reader, PerkinElmer, Shelton, NY) with a 450 nm filter. Unknown cortisol concentrations were computed from optical absorption values using linear calibration on cortisol standards in a log-logit transformed domain. Subjects were predominantly female (21/23) and students (19/23); 14 (64%) were Caucasian, 6 (27%) Asian, 1 (5%) Hispanic and 1 (5%) East Indian. Cortisol concentration varied from .113 – 1.243 μg/dl (M = 0.47 ± 0.34). Duplicate measures were highly correlated (r = 0.87, P < 0.001); intra-assay coefficients of variation were 9% for controls and 37% for the sample. Mean (± SD) cortisol was .30 ± .22 for Caucasian and .86 ± .25 for Asian subjects, with significantly higher values in Asian subjects (F = 9.6; df = 3, 18; P = 0.001). Asian doctoral nursing students appear to have higher salivary free cortisol concentrations than Caucasian students. Whether these preliminary findings reflect genetic factors, the stress of living in a foreign country or a combination thereof remains to be determined. Further study is needed given the numbers of international students pursuing higher education in a foreign country.