Against an expanded sector of higher education, inadequate empirical effort has been made to examine the experiences of middle-class students who fail to get straight into university rectify their situation. Such experiences, as well as their psychic/emotional aspects, are of increasing relevance to understanding the operation of class against a changing landscape of higher education and thus explaining the persistence of a class gap despite continuous educational expansion. In filling this empirical gap, this article examines the educational experiences of 16 middle-class community-college students in seeking a second chance in Hong Kong, and discusses how far the students could be seen as 'angels falling from grace'. Their educational experiences showed that they were advantaged like 'angels' receiving an abundance of parental support in seeking this second chance; but, feeling negatively about community college, they saw themselves as 'angels falling from grace'. Despite this, they finally successfully steered themselves to university.