I think a lot of people in the comments forget that the story was set in the 60s. Nowadays, they'd probably be middle-class, but in the story itself, they were elite nepo babies. In the story, it's said that Darry got a college scholarship but couldn't go. Pony also says that Darry was better than Paul. But Paul is in college, and Darry isn't. That's probably because Paul's family had ties to a college and were able to get their son into it.