The transition to higher education is a critical period in which students undergo significant personal, social, and academic changes. This qualitative study explored the process through which student identity and its centrality take shape during this transition, with a focus on first-year students attending an urban university of applied sciences (UAS) in the Netherlands. Through semi-structured interviews with sixteen first-year students from diverse backgrounds, analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, we found that a student identity emerges through five processes: student identity perceptions, social engagement and recognition, academic acculturation, self-regulated learning behaviour and role enactment, and internalisation of the student role. The extent to which being a student becomes a core part of one’s self-concept, in other words their Student Identity Centrality (SIC), varies across individuals and is closely linked to prior experiences, interference with other current roles, and alignment with student values. Our findings highlight the dynamic, context-dependent nature of identity development during the transition to HE, with implications for student retention and onboarding practice in vocational education.