I think it’s fine not being a southerner at any of the big southern publics these days. So many kids from all over the country wanting to come south for college, they really are melting pots. My daughter’s friend group at her university in VA is mostly kids from MD, NJ & IL (we’re from NC). There’s a smaller private school here in NC that gets a huge influx of kids from NJ (apparently, they market heavily there). As long as your son is not all “We do things better in Reno”, it should be a non-issue 
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The 3rd biggest population at Clemson is from NJ, after SC and GA. So many students from the northeast, but only 3 from our town (who went to 3 different high schools).
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