This was my experience in college. I grew up poor white trash, 1480 SAT on the old 1600 scale, 3.95 HS GPA, and was holding a 3.7 GPA in engineering while working 2 jobs to cover what maxing out my student loans didn't.

My friend, his dad was a VP at General Motors, 1370 SAT (so still high), had a 3.9 HS GPA and was holding a 3.5 GPA in the same major and specialty as me, got 100% scholarship under the AIM program. Literally called Academically Inclined Minorities. Basically, be black/hispanic/asian, get into the school, and hold a 3.2 or better GPA and school/meals/dorms is free with a $500 a month living expense stipend.

Meanwhile, I was stringing together a workstudy lab job, and working 3 nights as a welder at a local plant doing die repairs for an injection molding company. And then on off semesters, working a 40 hour a week engineering coop/paid intern job, and probably 20 hours a week working as a welder on top of that.

That said, my friend, who showed up to college with a brand new Camaro (HS graduation present) while I was driving a 1980 Checker Marathon with the infamous Olds 350 diesel, that was held together by duct tape, my welding and black magic, thought it was BS that I got maye $3k a year in scholarships with better grades, but he would have been a fool to turn down a free ride. But whenever we were working on a group project together, out to dinner, he'd always take care of me and his other friends who were on ramen and tuna budget. I do thank him for that.