That’s the thing. These cities and schools all sound great and welcoming. But it’s hard to go to a school knowing it could get very uncomfortable venturing outside the campus and immediate community, not having the same freedom as other kids might have to explore other parts of the state.
Yes, fortunately, instead of focusing on how these issues are limiting her options, we can use them to help her cut her list and better focus her efforts. 
Thanks everyone!
I agree. As I mentioned above, my D18 attends Michigan. We live in the SF Bay Area. Some of D18’s roommates are from Michigan, but not Ann Arbor. The families of the roommates own property elsewhere in the State of Michigan. D18 has traveled often with her roommates to other areas of Michigan, let’s just say less liberal areas. While Ann Arbor is fairly liberal, elsewhere in Michigan, not so much. And Michigan is roughly 50/50 in terms of politics.
When posters say a campus is in some “magic bubble” of liberalism, which could be true, beware of travel elsewhere, which would seem inevitable. More likely when your kid travels elsewhere in XYZ state, outside this “magic bubble,” then I’d advise to just be prepared.
Is it that different than jumping over the hills to Lancaster or Bakersfield from LA? 
I think the reason MO feels SO red, is the same reason Texas does, due to gerrymandering, they are both governed by far more Rs than their R/D split would suggest they should be. Tx was a toss-up in 2020 and even though MO was predictably red, 42% voted for Biden. In both states, both houses and both executive offices are controlled by Rs.
In CA 35% voted for Trump in 2020 and many are clustered strongly in certain areas. The West is all blue, but the East is all red. The difference is that CA is governed by Ds.
George Carville had a famous saying. He said Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between. These divisions are everywhere. Our perceptions of them are based on who governs the state and the headlines they create.
All that said, there’s no reason to include a school if there’s ANY doubt. My son excluded schools for MUCH softer reasons, the quality, or lack thereof, of the architecture! 
Yes. The laws, politics and general attitude is much different when Democrats hold a significant majority. Guns, abortion, environment, LBGTQ, Covid, marijuana, etc. That’s why we keep reading articles that conservatives are leaving the state.
Pennsylvania is NOT California.
Nice quote. Doesn’t apply.
The general attitude in Bakersfield or Lancaster is not different than St. Charles. People everywhere can step just beyond the bounds of their bubble and experience a radically different America, even in California. That’s the point I’m making. Focusing exclusively the laws, which are admittedly important, can hide the fact that everyone, red state or blue state has people that view the world very differently than them not far from home.
Yes I’ll focus exclusively on laws. And yes, that’s important.
I haven’t been to St. Charles, but I’ll disagree. I’ve been many, many times to Bakersfield and Lancaster over the years. It’s still California. For example, you don’t see “open and carry” there like you do outside of Ann Arbor.
And you can speak for the general attitude of cities?
Let’s move on, please.
Watching this thread, partly because of my Asian Engineering HS senior has some things in common with the OP’s, though some quite different. Being in B10 country there are so many good ENG opportunities available at the big state schools ( U of MN, WI, Purdue, UIUC)at a relatively low cost that it is hard to justify moving away. On top of that, S2 has dual (CanAm ) citizenship, so there are some pretty appealing schools north of the border. I think the OP is in a similar situation with the UC system schools…Cal Poly’s tuition is pretty appealing!
I know there has been a lot of CWRU love on here. This is anecdotal, but a friend(ENG) of S1’s transferred out of there to Wisconsin because he found it too quiet. It’s a really good school, but not for everybody, nor is Cleveland/rust belt.
They might be too big, but since some state schools have been mentioned already, have you considered UBC and/or McGill? Besides size, and perhaps cost(more than UC’s though less than some schools mentioned on here), they would check a lot of the boxes. Both are vg to outstanding in STEM, depending on the faculty, and both are vg to excellent all round. They are quite liberal and diverse, and have have either significant, or extremely large (in the case of UBC) Asian populations. I would say that both schools would be more LGBTQ friendly than most, and have students from all over the world. Both are in interesting cities…McGill right downtown at the foot of Mount Royal, and UBC on a peninsula jutting out into the Pacific ocean overlooked by mountains.
But do the big universities in Canada work well for students who are undecided on their undergraduate major?
Not McGill I think as you have to declare pretty specifically when you apply and if you change your mind you basically start all over. Also McGill isn’t really a campus oriented school - most students live in the city though it is a great city and lots of students live in the neighborhood of McGill which is also a great neighborhood. But think good for a student who has a path in mind and is very self directed.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the best known universities in Canada have many commuter students, since they are located in some of Canada’s biggest metro areas.
McGill has a VERY lively student scene, and the campus is more defined than a place like NYU. It’s more like Columbia in that regard. Calling it a commuter school would be misrepresenting it. For most US students, the 1st year (U0) is one that is less rigid in terms of declaring, as McGill is set up for CEGEP students(Quebec based JC) who enter as U1’s. I certainly would not call it more specific than a place like Cal Poly, which has been mentioned numerous times in this thread.
If you want to be most efficient with your time, and your end goal is to be an Engineer, then I can’t think of any school where being directed would not be desirable.
Thanks, had never considered Canadian schools but I think she would prefer to stay in the US She’s still figuring out our system, so probably doesn’t have the bandwidth to look into other countries. Imagine would be a lot of hassle to apply as a US citizen, plus possible pandemic travel restrictions, etc. Though I’d love to visit her at UBC - beautiful city!
McGill would be even harder as she would want more flexibility in changing her major. Those might be good for other kids to consider so hope this helps others reading this thread. Thanks!
Thank you, I am hearing it might not the burgeoning city we were hoping for. D also is not sure how she feels about it being in Ohio, although we are leaning away from it for that reason.
I’m also now concerned about the immediate setting. I just read this article and it gave me the sense that it’s similar to USC’s (California) relationship with its community – my perception (right or wrong) of USC is that it’s an elite, historically mostly white, affluent campus that is very segregated from its poorer neighbors of color: CWRU students and residents confront the 'invisible line' around campus | Ideastream Public Media
The “invisible line” described in the article reminds me of the wrought iron fence around USC, which was a big turn off for us. 
However, do not be surprised that many colleges’ students’ parental SES distributions are significantly higher than the SES distributions of their neighborhoods, since students attending college overall come from a higher SES distribution of families than the overall SES distribution. Of course, how extreme the SES difference can be varies by college.
Differences in race/ethnicity demographics between the college and neighborhood also vary by college. If the differences are large, that can potentially inject more social and political friction due to the visibility of such differences.
Yes, I can see that in many college areas there would be that SES difference.
I think it’s the extreme differences between college/neighborhood and the intentional physical/visual borders at USC that really threw me off when we drove around the campus. My visceral reaction was not only was it a message to the neighborhood that they were not welcome on campus, but also to the students that it was not safe to venture out. I realize other families and students love the school and campus, it just wasn’t what D or I thought would be a comfortable place for her to live.
Yet another reason we will eventually need to visit these schools in person. 
Not all SES contrasts may be that obvious. For example, Colby College is in Waterville, ME. Colby College has about half of the students attending without grants or scholarships, so the median student parental income is probably over $200k. Waterville, ME looks like a nice small town, but its median household income is under $40k.
If prospective students are going to omit schools from their application lists based on the schools’ location in or near relatively poor neighborhoods a lot of good universities are going to get shunned, including U of Chicago (southside of Chicago), U Penn (west side of Philly), Yale (New Haven), Columbia (NYC), and USC (LA). Another way to look at the situation, might be to consider how much money and how many jobs these schools bring to their respective neighborhoods. What would Hyde Park and surrounding area be like without U of Chicago?
Thanks, but our family’s not ruling out schools because of poor neighborhoods. With USC, it’s the apparent fortress they’ve built to shut the neighborhood out (and keep the students in) that was the turn off. I’ve had lots of family attend USC but I never drove around the campus and was surprised by the fencing and gates. I agree universities can do so much to support their surrounding communities, and many do, but I imagine any interaction is hampered when such pronounced physical barriers reinforce their boundaries. I never saw that at Chicago.