“You are going to have to level out. You are going to have to study more than the others”. Voices of students who attended a preparatory program at the Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile

Abstract

The preparatory program has allowed and facilitated students from municipal establishments to enter the university in Chile. The objective of this research was to reconstruct the stories of Chilean students who attended a preparatory program, specifically the UCN preparatory program, Coquimbo campus. This qualitative research was conducted using the principles of the biographical approach. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with students, with the purpose of reconstructing their academic life stories. The qualitative content analysis used showed the emergence of 3 latent-type categories: A) The bridge: stories about the preparatory program B) Immersion: stories about the university field C) Transformation: stories about habitus as a coping strategy. Pierre Bourdieu's theory facilitated the generation of conclusions regarding the presence of the university market, the ruling class, symbolic violence and the meritocratic habitus system that preparatory students display in the university field.