It's different today, Roxynoodle.
It's even different than when my two girls went to college. Public K-12 has gotten bad and college is catching up if not there already. My girls are 15 yrs. apart. Noticed a bad difference when youngest was in same grades 15 yrs after oldest completed them. Of course, both their dads and I are "old school"; and gave the same warnings as your parents did.
BTW, I never did go and hubby had to co-op during the early 1960's to get thru in 5 yrs. His parents did pay for long distance phone calls.... to them; otherwise, he got great experiences with International Harvester, Lockheed, and some steel co. can't remember. Got job offers from all and others since he had something to put on resume when he graduated. Majored in mechanical engineering with a minor in math. I still write better letters and engineers can't co-ordinate colors in their clothing. Ha!