There’s a long running myth that college kids are always out spending money. Not our experience. Not once did either daughter need to forego, say, a ski trip— her friends weren’t skiers (not at college.) No one was running off to NYC or Boston on a weekend and dinners locally really didn’t happen until jr/sr year. It was the great local Italian place, a shared Uber, not some 5-star place. They occasionally ordered pizza or Chinese delivered, to share. And yes, her friends ranged from stratospherically wealthy to barely managing families. Some parent names you’d recognize.
Different clothes? Not really. Fancy car? So that kid might drive the group, not waste time putting down others who were car-less. There’s usually plenty to do on-campus, concerts, events, guest lectures. They’d go to the gym or library together, college sports, watch tv sports, throw a party, all sorts of things.
In fact, on an overnight, one of the things she liked was a group played a board game on a study break. Just kids getting along, based on common interests. We’d occasionally send them $10, lol. The rest was on them. No distinctions between the kids on work study and those who were full pay. Your own attitude matters.