Why?
When there are so many OOS privates and publics with good aid.
Why would a California person go to OOS private and public, where California schools are considered the best in the nation. You have cal, ucla etc many liberal art colleges.
Because they are impacted, are rejecting tippy top locals, class size of over 700 in some intro courses, and ratings are based on excellence of grad programs.
Also, it’s nearly impossible to finish in 4 years.
Son and nephew UCB 2008 and 2009 grads.
Californians are spoiled by the weather. Beach, got it. Ski/snow/mountains? Step right up. Desert? Come on in. Why leave, if you don’t have to?
With over 100,000 applications for 8,000 freshman slots at UCLA . . . many California students are forced to look OOS. Many top students with good OOS merit opportunities do just that.
I t seems that many CA families are actually afraid …of the rest of the country.
Seriously.
Unless it’s a top 20 school-actually more like Ivy League- most of my son’s friends would not even consider looking out of state.
Top students in the rest of the country cast a much wider net.
There are tons of CA kids at east coast private colleges. You will also find many at places like Tulane and Northwestern, and even lesser known schools.
I’m curious why you think that many CA kids don’t look at OOS privates? Every college we visited (or local presentation we attended) mentioned that CA provided the 2nd or 3rd number of applicants, and many of these schools were on the East Coast. Anecdotally, my California D is at an East Coast LAC, and many of the kids she knows are attending public and private colleges all over the country (with more on the East Coast than the South or Midwest). It might go area by area and high school by high school, but I know lots of CA kids who are not staying in-state.
Applicants are different than attendees.
Our school had 8 out of twelve applicants accepted at Tulane, for example, yet none attended.
Maybe it’s the Southern thing that worries people?
Lots of California students look at California private schools (e.g. Stanford, USC) and community colleges as well.
Privates with good need-based aid tend to be highly selective, so it is likely that many students look at them but get rejected when they apply. Out-of-state public need-based aid tends to minimal to non-existent, with only a few exceptions. Large merit scholarships are often highly competitive, or at schools that are either largely unknown (outside of people on these forums reading the lists of them) or perceived to be inferior.
Considering the high Latino and Asian population in California, there is also likely a perception that going to a place like the midwest or south is going to a place where one will be a member of a small and despised minority group. While that may not necessarily be true (particularly at universities), the perception of those states being full of people who mostly voted for what they see as a racist and anti-immigrant candidate in a nasty election probably is not helpful in attracting them to go to college in those states.
When I went to college at a California public university, its 4-year graduation rate was under 40% (now around 70%). I had no trouble finishing in 4 years, and could have easily finished in 3.5 if I wanted to.
I think a lot of impressive California kids are being shocked by shut outs right now. Most of the strong students I know only apply to mid tier UC’s and up, plus maybe Cal Poly. All of the mid tiers seem to have dropped a significant percentage in acceptance rate this year. I’ve brought up midwestern and southern schools to my daughter and her friends and they get this glazed over look, like I suggested they go to college on the moon. Northwest, ok, northeast, sure… that whole part in the middle, what? Do people actually live there? It’s a cultural bias for sure. I’m not sure what the solution is.
I sent one of my younger kids to a summer program at Vanderbilt.
Everything changed.
She had the time of her life with kids from NJ, PA, CT, MS, AL, TN …and a roommate from the Panhandle!
She is wide open 
I can only speak for my son…we were casting a broad net, but after visiting the northeast, he decided not to go there. I think it was for three reasons, primarily. One, and this arose before we even traveled, he really started realizing how nice it is where we live and how happy he is here. I really do think part of it is as @JenJenJenJen said; there’s nothing pushing them out. Secondly, though, and I don’t know that this would be unique to kids in California, but he just didn’t feel like they were his people back east. He comes from a very status conscious high school, and he sees some of the more comfortable-seeming areas in the northeast as too different from him. (We were not looking at the top schools.) I wonder if kids from other parts of the country feel that way when they look at CA schools. Along with that, he’s ill-informed about other parts of the country, and thinks this state and that state are all “rednecks.” (I swear, I try to inform him.) Thirdly, I think he’s just not ready to go too far away from “home.” Maybe California kids are more protected, less independent? Is this where all the helicopter moms live? (Can’t believe I used that term. I hate it. LOL)
Finally, I will say, though, that California schools are among the most affordable for us. We are looking at some out of state schools, but the ones he prefers thus far have us paying OOS tuition with some merit aid, but not enough. I do think, though, that despite everything I said, if he were a top applicant, he might be looking further out. And as a previous poster said, it may not even be true that California kids don’t go very far.
Graduates of California’s private secondary schools appear to have a tendency to matriculate into out-of-state colleges, perhaps disproportionately so in some examples:
https://www.cate.org/education/college-counseling/college-matriculation-school-profile/
You see lots of threads here where people want only coastal schools; Midwestern & southern schools are clearly considered less desirable.
But when people who have well-off parents & decent test scores & GPAs are looking for merit aid, the best places are, you guessed it, the south & Midwest. They have lower costs to begin with, and often have generous automatic or almost- automatic scholarships. They are also often quite generous in granting credit for AP tests and accepting transfer credits (even for online classes) so graduating in fewer than 8 semesters is often possible.
The ones offering the best merit aid and/or low starting tuition include: W. Virginia, Texas Tech, OK State, Oklahoma, South Florida, Florida State, Kentucky, Kansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, Alabama, LSU , Ohio u. … not a lot of glamorous locations by coastal standards, but all offer solid academics, a cozy college town, a vibrant social life, and fun sports
I was literally told by my teens when searching for colleges, “no red states”. It’s definitely a stigma, they think people in other parts of the country are backward, racist, etc…
@moooop Thank you!
I just wonder how people don’t consider the wonderful opportunities at these schools. With great, but not tippy top scores my daughter could attend Ole Miss for much less than a UC and probably be in the Honors College as well.
She has applied to summer programs at Miami Ohio as well as Ole Miss.
Why not?
If she doesn’t like it we’'ll explore something else!
Red states are backward and racist … of course only here in California.
For my kids, both didn’t like the cold weather and there were plenty of good options here. My daughter did apply to several east coast schools and if she gets in, we will go visit. I personally think going out east is a great idea and they can see how fast tempo things can be.
She also applied to univ. of Texas Austin but got rejected. I think university of Texas might have the opposite view of Californians. Damn crazy progressive snowflakes.
@socalmom007 It would surely surprise our CA kids to know that many people in the rest of the country think less than flattering things about CA.
As a native Californian, I am just realizing these things.
We have a vast and diverse country.
It seems a shame to write off over half of it
Especially without ever meeting a single person from that region!