During Rush Week, the girls attempt to pledge the Alpha Omega sorority and the result bores Brenda; reunites Kelly with an old flame, John Sears, whom she can't stand and shake off; exhausts Donna who tries to boost ratings for her and David's radio show; and stereotypes Andrea when she suspects the sorority president of being anti-Semetic. Meanwhile, Brandon is asked to run for student senate, but Steve won't accept his involvement with the senates politics which are unpopular with the fraternity.

During the first week of classes as California University, Donna becomes burned out of her work which is interfering with her college courses, Donna quits the late-night radio shift leaving David solo. Brenda seeks a job for herself to pay for her college tuition and finds one with her father, but she fails to deliver some important contracts. At a pool party for the college freshmen, Steve decides, but can't bring himself, to break up with Celeste. A jealous Dylan can't deter John Sears from seeing Kelly. Also, Andrea discovers that her residential advisor and admirer, Dan Rubin, is her English professor.

Jim sets a lonely Brenda up on a blind date with Stuart Carson, the son of his business associate and both he and Brenda hit it off. Dylan decides to buy a new car, regardless of the price. Due to his late night schedule, David causes problems with Kelly and Donna over his lack of housekeeping. Kelly tells Dylan that they should start seeing others as a result of her growing relationship with John Sears. Meanwhile, Andrea finally loses her virginity when she and Dan move beyond being "just friends."

Dylan considers buying a gun after his new car is stolen from him at gunpoint. Meanwhile, Brandon's sociology professor Corey Randall asks him to tutor the university's basketball star, D'Shawn Hardell; Andrea and Dan mull over going public with their affair; Brenda and her parents are invited to lunch at Stuart's parents' house in Bel Air as Brenda and Stuart's romance really takes off.

Cindy and Jim throw a party for their 20th wedding anniversary. As Stuart and Brenda's affair grows, he proposes marriage and she willingly accepts. Meanwhile, Brandon falls for an anthropologist grad student named Lucinda Nicholson. A paranoid Dylan buys a gun from a street dealer and almost shoots Brandon. Andrea tells Kelly that she has doubts about her affair with Dan after he tells her about his non-belief in marriage; then Andrea meets Jesse Vasquez, a charming Latino barman, at the party. Mel asks David to look after baby Erin while he heads off to Mexico with his girlfriend.

Brenda is bothered when Stuart tells her that his parents want her to sign a prenuptial agreement; Jim also finds out about Stuart's prenuptial papers and asks Dylan to look into Stuart's background. Meanwhile, David and Kelly grow more hostile to each other when they are caught in the middle of Mel and Jackie's custody battle for Erin. On his first dinner date with Lucinda, Brandon discovers that she is married... to his sociology professor. Guilt plagues Steve he does a favor for Sears and his frat buddies to bed blind date Laura Kingman, a professional college dancer.

When their wedding plans become too much of a hassle, Stuart convinces Brenda that they should elope to Las Vegas. After Brandon finds out, he gets the rest of the gang to drop what they are doing and they all fly out to Vegas to try to discourage Brenda and Stuart from their marital plans. Meanwhile, Laura wants to see more of Steve, who tries to keep things between them under wraps. On other personal fronts, Brandon continues to try to keep Lucinda distant who continues to flirt with him every chance she gets. Donna continues to try to resolve the continuing feud between David and Kelly.

After Steve breaks up with Laura, she tells Kelly and others that he date-raped her the night they were together to get back at him. Meanwhile, Kelly learns Sears true sexist colors and rejects him, but he too doesn't take it so kindly. Dylan tutors Brenda in poetry which brings them to a disagreement. Also, Brandon's relationship (or lack of it) with Lucinda takes a dangerous turn when D'Shawn finds out and threatens Brandon to take his history mid-term for him or he will tell Professor Randall of his suspicions. When Lucinda insists to Brandon that he should take D'Shawn's tests, Brandon reacts stressed and hits the road.

After mistaking a woman at a rural filling station for his former girlfriend Emily Valentine, Brandon decides to visit Emily's home in Marin County north of San Francisco. He learns that the Valentines have moved to Greece, but runs into Emily by chance on a cable car in San Francisco. They rekindle their romance and decide to spend Thanksgiving together, but Emily does not reveal that she must move away in a week. Back in Los Angeles, the KEG frat house and Alpha sorority serve Thanksgiving dinner at a halfway house, and John Sears tries to take advantage of a 15-year-old girl. Steve intervenes and has the fraternity president distract John. Meanwhile, Dylan declines Kelly's Thanksgiving invitation because he plans to go surfing, but later agrees to dine with the Walshes. When Kelly comes over with her family, she snaps at Dylan and makes a scene. Elsewhere, Andrea is hesitant to attend a Thanksgiving soirée at the home of Dan's parents. Jesse, the bartender from the Walshes' anniversary party, is working Dan's parents' party; he asks Andrea out, and she willingly gives him her address.

Emily has been accepted to the prestigious Cousteau Institute in France, but does not want to attend because she and Brandon are in love. Brandon observes her passion for marine biology and encourages her to pursue her dream. Brenda balks when she is asked to appear nude in an experimental campus play. The frat and sorority pledges must endure a series of humiliating experiences during "Hell Week." The upperclassmen order Steve to steal a prize autographed baseball from Professor Randall for a scavenger hunt, but he gets caught. Andrea breaks up with Dan and begins dating Jesse. She learns that he is a UCLA law student who attended undergraduate courses at Yale.

Strange dreams contemplate Donna to fulfill David's dream to sleep with her on their second anniversary together, until her parents show up for a surprise visit. Meanwhile, Brandon returns from San Francisco where he learns about the Steve's botch break-in, who finds himself left in cold after Mike Ryan and the rest of the frat members reject him. Only John Sears remains sympathetic to Steve and tries to help. But when Brandon learns and relays to Steve that the campus police were anonymously tipped off to Steve's break-in, Steve realizes that Sears had set him up. In the meantime, Brandon plays hardball with the corrupt Professor Randall to drop the break-in charges against Steve by threatening to go public about him rigging test scores for D'Shawn and other basketball stars to they can play basketball for the university. Elsewhere, Andrea falls deeply in love with Jesse. Also, John Sears continued wooing of Kelly only pushes her back to Dylan.

David's work and study schedule begins to take a toll on him when mid terms come around, leading him to start using crystal meth. His erratic behaviour worries Donna and Kelly. Dylan wants to help Suzanne with her financial troubles by giving her $10 000 but Jim urges Dylan to let him do a background check on her first. Steve decides to take his suspicions about John Sears to their fraternity chapter president. Brandon continues to tutor D'Shawn in sociology but still feels that Professor Randall is giving him preferential treatment. During a basketball game, D'Shawn sustains an injury that he fears will impact his future career prospects. Andrea learns from her new RA that Dan Rubin has transferred to another dormitory.

In the two-part season finale, Brandon goes to Washington D.C. as a part of the college task force to meet the president. Kelly follows Brandon to Washington to get him out of a jam when Clare and Lucinda arrive at the hotel to pursue him. At the CU Mardi Gras, David impresses pop star Kenneth "Babyface" Edmunds, and his recording manager Ariel with his keyboard music and Donna catches David in a very compromising position with Ariel. Steve runs into Celeste who's now with John Sears. Kevin and Suzanne get married in a semi-formal ceremony where he persuades Dylan to cut out any outside investment in their business offer. Jim becomes angry at Dylan for making such a rash move and Dylan fires Jim as his financial holder. Dylan then goes to a bank and gives Kevin full power-of-attorney control over his money, unaware that Kevin and Suzanne have had a hidden agenda for Dylan's inheritance all this time. After her major success in the CU play, Brenda gets a scholarship offer to study acting in London and she pays a visit to Dylan's place before leaving. Also, Andrea and Jesse experience the joys and fears of parenthood after their daughter is born.