I’ve written about it before, but this hits on one of the most overlooked benefits of a small rural college experience–socioeconomic differences are less visible, less unavoidable. I was dog broke in college, work-study, the whole thing, but my wealthier classmates weren’t eating out in Michelin star restaurants or clubbing–those just weren’t available–they were drinking nasty keg beer alongside me. I’m sure they had nicer vacations, and many of them had cars, but I wasn’t “left out” because I was a scholarship kid, even though the full-pay kids came from some serious, serious family bucks. I didn’t really understand it at the time, but in retrospect it was a huge plus.