We are in CA. D attended a local public HS. We as a family tend to lean conservative (mostly fiscal) but are liberal about many other issues. D applied to a wide variety of schools - large liberal public universities, small Catholic private, etc. We never guided her one way or the other - she has a good sense of herself and what she would be comfortable with. Wound up at UC Berkeley, because 1) it’s an excellent school, 2) top ranked for her major, 3) only an hour a way, 4) cheaper than a private, and 5) a great urban college type of environment. Some of the instances of “hippie” make my H’s eyes roll, but he has a lot of respect for the institution and sees the value of what it has offered her so far.
Would we have been concerned had she wanted to attend a very conservative school? Probably, but then we were never faced with that possibility.