Non-selective colleges in red or purple states?

Hi there, mine grew up in Oakland and Berkeley and went to the University of Utah, graduated 2022. He made some great friends and he has settled in Salt Lake City post-graduation. Salt Lake is actually kind of a blue spot in the otherwise very red state, and a pretty cool city considering the heavy presence of religion there. I think that happens a lot in college towns (I attended the U of Missouri and the town it's in is also a blue island in the state). I think it was probably good for him to learn to live around folks who didn't grow up the same, and he has some people that he calls friends who are conservative. Only one time had a bad experience with a super right-wing roommate after moving off campus, but it worked itself out (roommate moved). I recommend the U for a lot of reasons - tons of research funds, great campus, good teachers. Some of its programs are actually very highly ranked nationwide. They're building more student housing which I know has been a concern, and parking around campus is not fun. Overall, a good experience despite the interruption of the pandemic in his first year.

Gosh, why don't you send him to one of the CSUs?   There are a lot of them that would meet your criteria and they're both diverse and cheap!   If you want him to live outside the blue bubble he can go to San Bernardino or one of the Central Valley schools.    UC Merced is a new campus in the Valley and right now has a high acceptance rate.

My CA born and bred son went to a huge flagship big 10 school in a purple state in the Midwest. It may be worth noting that the school and the town it’s in are both left leaning. It was a great experience. He would be the first to tell you that leaving CA for college is a good idea, especially if the more competitive UCs are off the table. In fact, he didn’t consider attending any schools in CA, although he did apply to some Cal States as financial safeties. 

He met so many kids from all over the country and all different socioeconomic levels. This was a big one for him since he had gone to private high school here on scholarship, and always felt “different” to some degree. It was a breath of fresh air to feel “normal”, according to him. Politically, it was similar to CA, but maybe a nudge more to the center, or perhaps a little more ideologically diverse. Hard to tell - the progressive voice was the loudest for sure.

He enjoyed the Midwest culture of the school and the academic and pre-professional opportunities. He had no trouble getting all the classes he needed to graduate on time. The school gave him enough $ to bring the price down to about the cost of a UC. Socially it was a little hard for him because it has a big party scene and he’s not into that, but it was ok. It was more of a personality thing than a geographic or cultural thing (he has friends, but generally keeps to himself). He was always happy to come home for breaks, especially because our weather is usually better. The great thing about leaving, is that you can always come back. 
 

Now that he’s graduated, he’s hoping to be able to stay around here, but is willing to move to the Midwest or East Coast for the right job. We are both so happy he got out of the CA “bubble” for awhile. It was definitely the right choice for him. Go for it!
 

This describes my younger brother exactly; though he's spent time living in Portland and Seattle, he really thrived at a non-selective state school in the Appalachians. He made great friends, met his spouse, was prepared for a successful career, and now lives in a place where his vote counts more than mine. A college town is a college town; your kid will probably encounter more "real world" diversity of opinion, but will also almost certainly find their people.

My daughter is currently attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Colorado is blue now, but was purple not that long ago, and CSU is a land grant college with strong agriculture, animal science, veterinary, forestry, and wildlife programs, so it's not the kind of blue enclave the Bay Area is. She's doing well now going into her 3rd year, but the 1st year was a little rough (she went from 2% White Oakland High to 70% White CSU; I think that was a shock). Her roommate and a lot of dorm-mates came in with friends from high school and it took her a while to find her peeps. I think she is appreciating experiencing a different culture and climate. When she was making her final decision, we found CSU stacked up well on faculty-student ratios, class size, graduation rates, and starting salaries after graduation compared to the California schools we were looking at. With the Western Undergraduate Exchange she gets a discount on out-of-state tuition that put it on par with the UC system school she got into. One plus for us was that her aunt and uncle live near Denver (1.5 hour drive time) and her cousin is also attending CSU, which provided a bit of a buffer compared to going to a different state with no safety net.

I went to college at Purdue University/- they seem right down the middle.  I found the sciences dept, pharmacy engineering, aeronautical, and nursing schools were so focused on academia , people didn’t have time for politics.  

Purdue is committed to solving problems, like climate change and other world problems.  

I found midwestern schools to be more moderate- tolerant of all types of views.  People typically dint discuss politics in Midwest if you sense there is a clash.  

UW Madison btw… is pretty liberal overall.  Great town.  

a fryrbd I know grew up in Berkeley and is left of center went to UCSD- not exactly a match politically but he met some great people and proudly graduated.  

As a CA transplant, I find CA to be over focused on politics.  The views  cultish - and if someone disagrees they are shunned.  

Luckily I’m left of center, so easy for me to day!  

Yes, it can work out great! My son went to U. Arizona - now a purple state but then bright red. When he arrived in the fall, he had no idea that you couldn't just plop down under a tree anywhere you like and light up a joint. Haha. That was the first of many learning experiences. Coming from Berkeley, where being left of center can get you the 'conservative' label, he didn't even realize there were Republicans in California, let alone all over the country outside of our bubble. U Arizona gets a lot of SoCal Orange County types so that was another learning experience.  His roommate was a very religious boy from Kentucky whose parents were not pleased about their son's Jewish roommate from famously radical Berkeley. But the two became friends and learned to navigate their differences. My son has never spent a lot of time thinking about politics, though. He took for granted a certain basic level of progressiveness that turned out not to be the case, so that was a useful lesson.  But it was never a problem -- the reason he chose UA in the first place was because it was the only PAC-10 school that would accept him (and UA accepted him with unbelievable speed - a relief for his parents.) He wanted to go to a big university with a big sports program. He is not an athlete but he's always been sports-crazy, and he had no problems at all connecting with every other sports-crazy kid at UA, whether evangelical Christian or straightlaced East Coast conservative. And he still keeps in touch with them, sometimes meeting up in Tucson for alumni events. 

It is enlightening for kids to see what it's like outside our beloved bubble. It's important for all of us to be able to connect to people who aren't exactly like us. It might be frustrating for a kid who is deeply political to find themselves in an alien culture where they are an outsider, and I'm not promoting that - I grew up in the Deep South and I'm grateful to live in Berkeley. But people can connect on so many other levels besides the political level, and that's something to be encouraged! In my son's case, it was a lot of fun, too. 

Why not consider California community colleges? Your kid can save a ton of $ attending cc for 2 years, and then apply to CSUs and/or UCs as a transfer student. Their HS grades and test scores will not count one bit. All that will matter is whether they have taken the prerequisites for their major, with the required grades for the CSU or UC.

Both my kids went to college in red/purple states.  My older child graduated from a fairly competitive mid-Atlantic public university and was quite happy there; he chose that over an excellent UC option and has no regrets. My other child is still attending college in the upper midwest at a small private liberal arts school with heavy music emphasis and also seems to be doing well. I was really happy for them both to go out of state-- I do think California is definitely a bubble and i wanted them to be exposed to other ways of thinking, which did happen. At the same time, however, it was not hard for them to find their people-- more thru shared interests, proximity, etc, than political bent, though most of the friends they made are also liberal leaning. 

Other benefits I/they noticed-- people often seem somewhat nicer in other parts of the country; regardless of political leanings, sometimes they are just more polite and friendly on a one to one basis. It's truly culturally different in a variety of ways, and I was glad for my kids to experience that. I also wanted them to have more opportunities for independence.  For me, these aspects are a big part of the college experience. As a bonus, as others have mentioned, both kids received sufficient merit aid to bring the costs down to approximately what a UC would have cost.