Yes, I do know exactly what it takes. One thing it takes is being born into a comfortable middle class household where I could afford to spend the last three years spending money instead of earning it. The same with my four years of undergrad. It never came down to just how badly I wanted it or how badly I was willing to work for it. It took a lot of good fortune. Maybe I could have done all that taking night classes and working full time, but it would have been much harder and taken a lot longer. And I might not have been able to afford it. So it may have taken even longer since I would have had to spend more time between schooling working to save up. And I would have had far fewer hours in the day to spend studying and writing for school. So maybe I would have had the same degree four years later, but I wouldn't have likely done as well and thus wouldn't have learned as much. I'm fortunate enough that I've been able to live almost for free for the last several months, so that I could devote all my time to preparing for the bar. If I weren't so comfortable financially, I'd have been working instead of studying, so maybe I wouldn't have done as well on the bar, and would have to take it several more times, which means even longer until I'm able to start profiting from it.
So yes, it is certainly possible to obtain an advanced degree or succeed in other ways despite being poor. But it is a hell of a lot harder and takes a lot longer, and there are far more places along the way where one can stumble. I have a safety net so I didn't fall too far the couple of times I did stumble. And that is the real difference between liberal and conservative platforms for the poor. Conservatives are all about taking away that safety net if one should stumble. It is presumed that if you stumble, you don't deserve to have help to get back on your feet.
Your characterization that left wing policies are about keeping people stuck in poverty is completely ignorant of basically every policy that the left supports. The dependency angle is a fiction that has never squared with reality at all. There is definitely a reason that minorities overwhelmingly support the left. And it's not, as conservatives claim, that they're too stupid to realize they've been duped. It's because they're smart, and see what the score really is, and are voting for the side that is going to help their children live better lives. Conservatives like to pretend that their way is the perfect way for everyone. But no one who isn't already well off is buying it. I wish you could all get over this fiction.
