The study began with the question, what are the actual experiences of underprivileged students who have been provided with the equal opportunity of higher education? . In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 students who were admitted through the low-income households route at A university, which is considered to be a prestigious university in Korea. And the information on each student s academic journal was collected. After analyzing such data, the following facts were found.
First, even though such students had been admitted to the prestigious university of A despite their underprivileged family backgrounds, they perceived their poverty as the reason for their admission to university A as they experience at university that low-income admissions route is perceived as an unfair preference or reverse discrimination . This perception became a cause of their deteriorating self-confidence in academics. Second, for students from low-income households, intellectual disparities with other students are experienced during their university studies. The gap caused by other students prior learning and experiences in special high school math is widened through classes at A University, which focuses on the transfer of knowledge without considering individual students abilities. Third, students from low-income households who are unable to close out such intellectual disparities through their classes result in receiving lower grades. This leads to their failure to meet the scholarship and dormitory provision qualifications, making it difficult for them to continue college life. Students are then forced to engage in economic activities to earn tuition and living expenses, which again puts them in a vicious circle of low grades. Fourth, students are able to overcome their academic difficulties when they receive help from their professors, seniors, and colleagues.
Nevertheless, students consider academic difficulties as a personal matter and often choose to take leave or enlist in the army to temporarily resolve this.
These findings show that the equal opportunities for college education offered to students from low-income households may not in itself guarantee equal university education. This suggests that such students need more active and integrated support at the university level. Furthermore, these findings on the inequality of university education itself, which cannot be overcome by the sole provision of equal university education opportunities, suggest that the equal university education opportunities offered to students of low-income households may not in themselves guarantee equal university education.