Similar to my experience in the 1960s. Back then I could get a summer job on a construction site and as a janitor during the school year. Now there are long lines of people wanting those jobs.
I haven’t done the math to compare wages to costs, but I could pay as I went which is almost impossible today. I came away with a BA and a pile of graduate degrees with no debt. And none of my funding past the first two years of undergrad came from my family and nothing was a grant/scholarship. It was all earned.