Background <p>To explore nursing students’ experiences of academic burden and their coping strategies to inform improvements in nursing education. Academic burden in nursing students is associated with decreased emotional well-being, reduced motivation, and difficulties in developing professional identity. These challenges may reflect characteristics often discussed in relation to contemporary students, such as a preference for autonomy and supportive learning environments, rather than being attributed to a specific generational group.</p> Methods <p>A qualitative study utilizing focus group interviews and inductive content analysis. Twelve undergraduate nursing students from two universities in Seoul participated between March and April 2024. All had clinical experience and reported academic burden. Two semi-structured FGIs were conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.</p> Results <p>Four main themes were identified: loss of agency within rigid academic structures, reflected in heavy workloads, peer comparison, and evaluation pressure that diminished self-efficacy and fostered emotional isolation; instability in professional identity during clinical training, exacerbated by unclear expectations and theory–practice gaps; emotional vulnerability shaped by comparison and suppression, leading to internalized distress; and efforts to sustain oneself through coping and relational support, including self-regulation and support from peers and institutional resources.</p> Conclusion <p>Academic burden should be recognized not only as an individual challenge but also as a structural issue in nursing education. Learning environments that support autonomy, relational connection, and emotional well-being may better address the needs identified in this study, which align with characteristics often associated with Generation Z, while remaining grounded in the actual experiences of participants.</p>