UNR (University of Nevada, Reno)!!! You would thrive here. 
UC Davis hits all your criteria. Some of the other mid-rank UCs do too except for sports school spirit. Unlike them Davis is NCAA Div I and has a football team.
Bring your ACT up into the 30s and you will have a shot at Berkeley and UCLA, both of which also fit all your criteria.
Id add SMU - pretty good all around intellectual mix and methodist in name only. (has grad theology but no undergraduate requirements. Is considered non sectarian like duke, emory and vandy)
Hey! Little update: I just received my February ACT scores and I got a 32. This should help a lot I think ! I’m so happy
Way to go! That opens things up considerably.
“Money is not too much of an issue, we are middle to upper-middle class.”
Good grief. This is a ridiculous statement. Unless your family is very wealthy, money is ALWAYS an issue. Seriously.
This must have been said millions of times on this website.
An upper middle class family is very unlikely to get any financial aid from out of state publics. So really, just forget about them. Lucky for you, you live in California.
U.C. Santa Cruz and U.C. Santa Barbara are two of the smaller of the U.C.s, so they should definitely be on your list.
If you can really bring your ACT score up, also consider adding U.C. Davis, U.C. Irvine, UCSD, UCLA.
Also consider: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona. Also consider CSULB, CSUN, SDSU, and SJSU.
So that’s 12 schools right there.
Now, you may add on 2-4 privates (again, do NOT bother with OOS publics).
Here, you want to be strategic, and absolutely be sure to run the NPC.
Consider: USC, Boston U., Northeastern U., Lehigh U, U. Miami, Syracuse.
@Harvardandberkeley: Not a ridiculous statement. Although it may be to you & I, I know dozens of families for whom that statement is absolutely correct.
After all, who do you think pays NYC educational consultants’ fees ?
@Publisher, the O.P. said middle-class to upper middle-class, so I am assuming they are not safely above the upper middle-class. Such students will not get significant, if any, financial aid from OOS publics. The kind of schools the O.P. is talking about will cost quarter million dollars without financial aid.
Sure, go ahead, I’m sure you know someone who did this. But as general advice, it is very, very, very unwise.
Of course, if someone is safely in the wealthy category and cost really doesn’t matter, that’s entirely a different story.
Agree. Just that my family knows lots of folks for whom that is not a significant hurdle. Not us.
Also, putting “someone” in quotes is BS. “Dozens of” is much more accurate.
“Not a significant hurdle”? Then I doubt they are “middle class.”
Yes, you are correct.
I would recommend looking at the University of South Carolina!