This dissertation investigates the historical and socio-cultural dynamics of Korean international students in American higher education from 1945 to 2020. It explores the local motivations and global trajectories that have shaped patterns of student mobility over the decades, focusing on how social structures and changes influence individual and collective trajectories. By employing a Bourdieusian framework, this study examines the interplay between education, social mobility, and cultural capital within the broader contexts of national development, gender dynamics, and globalization. The dissertation contextualizes Korean higher education and its evolution through various political and economic phases, including Japanese imperialist rule, post-war reconstruction, and the developmental state era, as the social structure in which people pursue education for social mobility and reproduction. Employing interviews with former Korean international students and archival data, this study begins by investigating the experiences of elite Korean students in the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s, highlighting the gendered nature of cultural capital conversion and the impact of a strong developmental state on academic mobility. The study further explores the period of democratization and educational expansion from the 1980s to the 2000s, revealing shifts in motivations and experiences as international education became more accessible to the masses. The final empirical chapter addresses the decline in Korean student numbers in the 2010s, attributing this trend to changing perceptions of American undergraduate education and the evolving Korean higher education system. Through a detailed analysis of these historical transformations, the dissertation argues that the pursuit of international education is driven by locally motivated global trajectories. It demonstrates that the primary goal for many Korean families has been to achieve elite status in Korea through American educational credentials. This aspiration, intertwined with the socio-political and economic changes within Korea, has led to a dynamic and evolving pattern of international student mobility. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of education in social stratification and mobility, emphasizing the significance of international education as a form of cultural capital in the context of national development and globalization.