What Life on Most College Campuses is Really Like

Ivy League universities and other elite institutions get most of the national headlines, both favorable and unfavorable. Land-grant and flagship universities attract the largest share of state appropriations, bring in the big research bucks, and dominate the political and athletic news in their respective states. Small liberal arts colleges are touted for their high-touch approach to students and are renowned for alumni loyalty.

But the nation’s 500-plus regional public universities (RPUs) are the real backbone of American higher education. They educate over 70 percent of undergraduates at four-year institutions, serving a large share of the “new majority” of students. These include students from low-income backgrounds, who are often the first in their families to attend college; Pell Grant recipients; community college transfers; working adults; veterans; and students of color. Indeed, RPUs award 58 percent of all bachelor’s degrees earned by African Americans. 

Think of regional public universities as those state-funded institutions that have not been designated as a state flagship or a primarily research institution. Many started as “normal schools” or teaching colleges, but over the years, evolved beyond that original mission. Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, where I once served as president, is an example of an RPU. So are Illinois State University, Eastern Kentucky University, the multiple institutions in the California State University system, and the branch campuses of several other university systems. 

RPUs offer a comprehensive array of academic programs, awarding most bachelor’s and master’s degrees earned at public four-year institutions. After they graduate, those students tend to stay in the region, joining the local workforce in healthcare, education, social services, manufacturing, agriculture, and other key sectors. 

Despite doing the lion’s share of the work of educating the nation’s undergraduates, RPUs are often overlooked, and their work remains under-appreciated. The top 20 universities in the U.S. News’ Best Colleges ranking are elite private or flagship public institutions—and the same goes for the dozen other college lists that competing outlets publish. (The exception is the Washington Monthly’s Best Colleges for Your Tuition (and Tax) Dollars rankings,where 11 of the top 20 schools are regional public universities.) This general lack of acknowledgment is unfortunate because, among the roughly 4,000 degree-granting colleges and universities in the U.S., RPUs stand out as exactly the kind of institutions that most Americans—regardless of their political leanings—say they value and agree we need. 

At a time when higher education is struggling to regain the public’s trust and confidence, our regional public universities offer a straightforward, practical answer: Charge students a reasonable price and then help them complete academic programs that prepare them for careers serving the needs of their home communities. 

Here’s one other thing RPUs do that most Americans appreciate. They focus on teaching. Although many RPU faculty conduct and publish research, teaching remains the main job for most of them, not a side gig as is so often the case at leading research universities.

Who are the students attending regional public universities? How do they view the education they received, and what’s their opinion of the campus experiences they encountered? 

Those were some of the questions that Third Way, the national think tank, sought to answer with an online opinion survey of 500 RPU students, which they commissioned the GS Strategy Group to conduct April 2-6. The results of that survey (with a margin of error of +/- 4.38 percent) are contained in a just-published report, Shining the Spotlight on Regional Public University Students, by Third Way’s Deputy Director of Higher Education Policy, Ben Cecil. 

What can we learn about RPUs from what these students say about them? Here are some of the qualities that stand out.

RPUs: Affordable, Supportive, and Representative 

Forty-four percent of surveyed students believed that the cost of the RPU they were attending was typical of other colleges and universities, while 32 percent said it was less expensive. That 32 percent minority was more accurate: Average in-state tuition and fees for RPUs are about $2,000 lower than at all public four-year institutions, according to a report from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

One reason RPU students might not realize they’re getting a relative bargain is that costs remain high compared to what they can afford. More than half (52 percent) described themselves as “just getting by,” and another 13 percent were “finding it difficult to get by.” Only 34 percent said they lived “comfortably.” 

Sometimes, financial pressures forced students to rely on special resources to meet basic needs. More than a third (37 percent) had used their campus food pantry, and among students who felt they were “just getting by” or having “difficulty getting by,” more than two-thirds had turned to this resource. 

Nearly four in five students (78 percent) were concerned that a financial emergency would prevent them from continuing their college education. Some 32 percent said they had used food stamps, SNAP, or TANF, and 12 percent had relied on emergency housing support at some point while in college. That’s above the rate the general public uses these programs.

RPUs do a good job of representing the communities they serve—86 percent of surveyed students said they were attending an RPU in the same state where they grew up or went to high school, which is consistent with prior research showing that 69 percent of RPU students go to college within 50 miles of where they grew up.

Because students at RPUs are mostly from nearby, only about a third live on campus, according to the survey. That’s a far cry from the 90 percent or more of students at highly selective schools who live on campus. Not surprisingly, RPUs are sometimes thought of as lacking sociability, but the survey shows otherwise. Nearly nine in ten (87 percent) RPU students said they had two or more close friends, and 75 percent felt a sense of community at their school.

RPUs: Where Students Defy Stereotypes

Contrary to some media narratives, RPU campuses are not being overrun by progressive 20-year-olds bent on challenging authority and rejecting mainstream social norms. Politically, they lean left: 45 percent of RPU students identify as Democrats, 30 percent as Independents, and 19 percent as Republicans. Yet 40 percent also identify as moderate, a higher portion than the country as a whole.

RPU students care about politics—almost two-thirds said it was likely they would vote in November’s upcoming election, and 39 percent guaranteed they would do so, expressing a preference for Democratic over Republican candidates for Congress by a 63 to 21 percent margin. However, they spread their unfavorable opinions of political partisans to a surprising degree: 69 percent hold unfavorable views of President Donald Trump, 62 percent of the Republican Party, and 34 percent of the Democratic Party. One-fifth disliked both President Trump and the Democratic Party simultaneously. 

About two-thirds reported both feeling a sense of community at their school and having at least one friend with a political opinion different from their own—a pattern that was generally true for Republican, Independent, and Democratic students alike. As one student noted when asked what the media gets wrong about college life, “it’s not as politically divisive” as often portrayed.

Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents (74 percent) said they had never attended a political protest on their campus. That figure is consistent with previous Washington Monthly reporting showing that the protests that exploded in 2024 over the Gaza war happened overwhelmingly on elite campuses and rarely at open-access schools with large percentages of working-class students. “The protests are based in history,” one student explained to the surveyors, “but they’re not the norm. Most days, people just go to class and go back home and maybe hang out with friends a little bit in between.”

One reason RPU students are less involved in political activism may be that they have too many other responsibilities. For example, 71 percent were working either part-time (54 percent) or full-time (17 percent). A third either had children under 18 to take care of or were caregivers for their parents or another family member. Almost half (48 percent) of RPU students report attending religious services regularly.

Although most students (87 percent) believe that the mainstream media depictions of college life are largely accurate, they also believe news accounts are misleading in a few areas. RPU students pointed to the media’s overemphasis on partying, their underestimation of the stress students face, and their misperception about the amount of free time college students enjoy. 

One student commented that “the media often portrays college life as one endless party … in reality, college involves a heavy workload of lectures, assignments, group projects, and exams, with many students juggling part-time jobs, financial stress, and real academic pressure.” The same student added that “friendships and romance require genuine effort amid busy schedules, and loneliness or mental health challenges are common but rarely shown.”

RPUs: Where Access and Opportunity Meet

Despite their low profile, RPUs serve as higher education’s workhorses, doing much of its heavy lifting. Accessible, affordable, and well-connected to the communities where most of their students have roots, they offer a model of postsecondary education that appeals to many Americans. If much of the nation has lost confidence in our colleges and universities, RPUs are well-positioned to win it back.

What’s more, their students—coming from a rich variety of backgrounds—appear to recognize a good value when they see it. When asked, “In general, how would you rate your experience at your current school?” 88 percent responded that it was either excellent (34 percent) or good (54 percent).

They may lack the pedigree of elite institutions or the prestige of public flagships, but RPUs are succeeding at the jobs the nation depends on them to do—educating a broad array of students to be nurses, teachers, accountants, engineers, and social workers, and serving as reliable drivers of local economies across the nation.