My high school was Jeep Cherokee central. It was a status symbol, the cars were better than the teacher's in general. But those who didn't have Jeeps weren't "looked down upon." The high school i went to was in a very rich area (although my family is not rich). Were the wealthy kids spoiled, condescending, parading their riches, always relying on daddy's money? Very few. For the most part, we were down to earth, hard-working kids. It sucked having people stereotype you just because they assumed you're wealthy. The whole city made fun of us, jealous because of how successful we were (academically) and for the money factor. No one in my class, at least, was snobby. We didn't even wear anything that said our school name out around town to guard against ridiculing or beaten/shot at in the rough neighborhoods. If we told people what school we went to, they'd say "oh" in that "you're one of those people" way. I don't get it, we didn't portray any kind of attitude. Did they display wealth? I don't know - yes, they shop at banana republic, but so do a zillion other people. Their families earned the money through hard work and business saavy. They deserve to be able to get nice things, and I think that's what it is. They get used to the more luxurious things in life, so they pass those on to their kids. It's not an active "I need to show off so everyone else can tell what a rich family I come from." It's more continuing the type of lifestyle that they already have developed.
And about the asian thing. Those whose parents worked for years to become doctors, senior researchers or PIs, etc. are the ones who might have the nice cars. You are not going to find FOBs running around in BMWs. Many asian internationals come for grad school. My university is like FOB central. They're not rich, their families aren't rich, they earn it just like everyone else. However, asian internationals coming for undergrad studies might be a different matter.
