Beware: controversy below. Move to the right to avoid!
This is a more important issue than I’d have thought prior to my own kids’ experience. That is probably partially due to there being far greater schisms between those with and those without among the current college going population.
In my experience, different colleges impact on the extent to which economic differences among students make a difference to students’ social world -and this is true about differences across colleges even among colleges that seem to be very similar in terms of cost or “status” or selectivity. I think a school’s driving ethic/values drive these differences. For example, in some schools those that commit and get their deposit in first have a wider choice of dorms over those that bring up the rear. That one initiation to the college says more than it might initially appear to. Had that been true for schools for my kids, they’d have been assigned large corrugated boxes-since $ was scarce after paying the costs of applications and visits.
Also , some schools “nickel and dime” students. It’s not the nickel and dime that hurts but the overall mentality towards expenses. {no, tuition isn’t necessarily lower in these schools-it isn’t a matter of simply being fairer or regressive (as in taxes) and charging only those who use the resource instead of charging all in tuition. It’s is an opportunistic way to collect revenue. It can also result in culling the group interested in a particular resource.
In some schools it is possible for students to buy their way into experiences and opportunities and in others it isn’t. Or at least it is only in rare instances. In those where many opportunities involve large additional fees, those who don’t have them are left out. As a parent, I was immensely grateful for those schools that didn’t award wealthy students at the expense of those less fortunate. I didn’t know enough about that difference with my own so schools were not selected on that basis. But if I had another who was looking for schools, that would enter into the equation-not so much because of the difference in cost but the difference in the schools’ mentality. Top down influences the entire institution, including the students.