<p>More equitable pathways to university have been recently implemented in Chile. An alternative entrance pathway program was launched in 2009 at a Santiago-based university. This study aimed to describe the personal and academic journeys of the first three cohorts of students under this scheme, with a focus on the qualitative features that underpinned unexpected positive retention and program completion rates. Informed by a mixed methods methodology, using descriptive statistics and 26 interviews, 20 with graduates and six with their lecturers, the study suggests that such successful academic performance, remarkable retention and graduation rates relate to the participants' early inner drive to pursue university studies, wherein university epitomised a journey to professionalism and a way out of financial scarcity. The participants placed emphasis on the need to be assisted through a scholarship scheme and placed much value on their family support, the learning environment, and on their lecturers in particular. From the lecturers' data, it emerged that central to graduates' performance and overall academic achievement was their tenacity and determination to sustain their motivation to successfully accomplish their academic goals.</p>