Given the critical role of higher education in fostering social mobility and access to decent work, our study investigates how the college experience, shaped by social marginalization and economic constraints, influences students' academic engagement and work volition before and during COVID-19. Drawing from the psychology of working theory (PWT) and decent education, we assess the mediating role of school belongingness and the moderating effect of COVID-19 timing through structural equation modeling. Our findings suggest that COVID-19 exacerbated the negative effect of social and economic marginalization on work volition and the negative effects of economic constraints on academic engagement, while also diminishing the moderating effect of school belongingness. These insights are crucial considering the profound disruptions in higher education due to the pandemic and underscore the importance of fostering school belongingness as a component of decent education to sustain student engagement and positive views of their work futures.