States’ political climates are significantly influencing where high-school seniors are choosing to attend college in the fall, according to the results of a survey released Monday by the Art & Science Group, a higher-education consulting firm.
One in four students said they had ruled out institutions due to the politics, policies, or legal situation in the state where the college was located. Students who identified as LGBTQ+ reported rejecting institutions for these reasons at a higher rate than did students who identified as straight.
There had been anecdotal evidence and speculation in recent months to suggest that some prospective students, among the small subset of those who travel out-of-state to attend college, might rethink their choice of institutions because of increasingly disparate state policies, particularly on issues such as abortion. So David Strauss, principal of Art & Science, said the researchers weren’t necessarily surprised by the survey’s findings, but rather, by the magnitude of the number of students who indicated they felt the way they did. “What this suggests is that institutions that are in states where significant parts of their constituencies might not be comfortable, they’re going to have to mount an appeal that is strong enough to be compelling that it would overwhelm these kinds of concerns,” Strauss said.
The results were consistent across the ideological spectrum — conservative students (28 percent) indicated they were about as likely as liberal students (31 percent) to reject an institution based on the political climate of a state. And while conservative-leaning students said they were more likely to avoid institutions in California and New York, liberal-leaning students said they were more likely to avoid schools in the South or Midwest.
“We’ve been struck by the observation that liberals seem to be reacting mostly to very particular policies,” Strauss said. “Conservative students seem to be reacting a little bit to particular issues, but more to a general sense of a state being democratic or too liberal in a kind of generalized sense.”
The states most likely to be ruled out overall included Alabama (38 percent), Texas (29 percent), Louisiana, and Florida (21 percent for each). The most common policy issues cited by students were a lack of concern about racial equity and conservative restrictions on abortion and reproductive rights.
A third of students said they had declined considering institutions in their home state because of a political or legal situation they deemed unacceptable. Self-identified Republican students were more likely to have done so than Democrats.
Strauss said the results indicate that institutions should do what they can do to advocate for the interests of their students — whether that means fostering dialogue across the political spectrum or finding outlets to help students access something the state does not provide.
“That’s hard work, but it’s eminently controllable,” Strauss said.
The survey was conducted between January and February and reflects interviews with 1,865 high-school seniors, 778 of whom said they intended to attend a four-year institution as a full-time student in the fall. Responses were weighted by income, race, region, and gender to make the findings representative of the college-going population. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percent.
