for one, people rarely live on campus and people are not connected to their educational institute asmuch as Americans. a lot of students are part of associations (some with large legacies. mainly Germanic ones). but these assosiciations are not directly linked to a particular school.

also, the major difference between american colleges and European ones in my experience is the control the school has over people's lives. American schools seem to treat their students as kids in a bigger body, and they have sometimes insanely strict rules about behaviour, student housing etc.

most European school I have experience with couldn't care less about what you do in private, and besides some support networks for mental health, think of their students as adults who should fix their own housing, income, sports etc.