hey dont beat yourself up!
for the first few weeks I vaped I used it to smoke less. If you consider you probably smoked more than 5 cigarettes a short while ago without thinking twice.. progress is progress.
I feel you on the college student thing, I am a grad student so I know what its like. But consider this, buying in advance takes planning and it may seem like a lot of money, but as a pack a day smoker living in NJ/NY area, I was spending about 10$ a day on smokes. If I break it down (I haven't yet but still could easily) I probably spend less than $2 a day now.
Also, a lot of sites sell sample packs. I'd recommend that as it is usually not too expensive and you can try a variety.
Good luck!