More than a quarter of college applicants have ruled out a school based solely on a state’s political climate, a new study finds.
And those concerns extend into the political realm.
The study found that liberal applicants excluded colleges in states with restrictive abortion laws and permissive gun laws. Conservative students are avoiding schools in states with permissive LGBTQ laws and permissive criminal laws.
The findings come from a study released Monday by Art & Science Group, a consulting and research firm serving the higher education sector.
“When students say, ‘I don’t care if I rule out a state or a school in that state’ before deciding where to apply, it’s a strong indication of how important these issues are to young people,” Nancy said. he said. Tessier, Principal, Arts & Science Group.
In recent years, university leaders have become increasingly wary of partisan national politics that intimidate applicants as enrollment slumps.
Some applicants are rejected by universities because of their address.
Earlham College is a national liberal arts school located in Richmond, Indiana, where abortion is currently illegal in most cases. Some prospective students have told Earlham College admissions officers that they will not apply to the school because of their address.
“It’s rare, but we hear about it all the time,” said Paul Sniegowski, president of Earlham.
That’s a problem, he said. One solution, Sniegovsky suggested, is for Ahlam and the academic community as a whole to use the political divide as a learning opportunity.
“Going to university is about encountering and thinking about differences,” he said.
Researchers say partisan state politics poses a challenge, especially for institutions that draw students from across the country. About three-quarters of students still attend college in their state, Tessier said.
Conservative applicants avoid California. liberal skirt florida
College applicants who avoid states for political reasons are most likely to avoid locations with prominent politicians and political leaders. Conservative students are most likely to exclude New York and California, according to the Arts & Science Group. In addition to Arkansas and Tennessee, liberal students are also most likely to reject Texas and Florida.
The idea that some college applicants avoid entire states because of politics has long permeated admissions circles as a rumor.
In early 2023, Arts & Science Group decided to see if the rumors reflected reality. Leaders of the consulting firm say they have created a first-of-its-kind study. The study also inspired other researchers, including a second study by the Art & Science Group.
“Most students seem to consider politics as a factor in choosing a college most of the time,” said a senior strategy director at Echo Delta, another higher education marketing consulting firm that studies the issue. Vice President Jarrett Smith said. “And that equates to tried and true factors such as academic quality, academic reputation, and student life.”
Perhaps generations of applicants have rejected entire colleges, states, and regions for political reasons.
But in 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, local politics took on new urgency regarding college admissions, the researchers said. Many conservative states responded by curbing abortion rights.
The new Arts & Sciences report is based on a spring survey of 1,579 high school seniors who said they planned to attend college this fall. The survey was conducted months before a major election that pushed abortion rights, gun control and partisan politics back to the top of the news.
“We were six months away from the election,” Tessier said. “We wanted to know whether their emotions became stronger or weaker over time compared to previous research.”
A new report shows college applicants are more concerned than ever about state politics. In the first survey, 24% of students said they had excluded a university in a particular state for political reasons. In the second round, that proportion rose to 28%.
Abortion laws concern both Democratic and Republican students
Researchers found that abortion rights and gun control are top priorities for many students, regardless of their political identity.
Another recent poll conducted by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation found that 81% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans say abortion laws are important to most current and future college students. Among this group, most respondents said they would like to attend college in a state with less restrictive abortion laws: 63% of Republicans and 86% of Democrats. The poll was conducted among approximately 7,000 Americans in late 2023.
In the same survey, 80% of respondents said campus gun regulations were important when deciding whether to attend a school. Among this group, most respondents said they favored more restrictive gun laws, including 71% of Republicans and 91% of Democrats.
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“Even in traditionally conservative states, these policies aren’t particularly popular, at least among the students surveyed,” said Zach Flinowski, a senior education researcher at Gallup. He hinted at abortion laws and permissive gun control.
A third area of political concern for college students and prospective students is “oppositional concepts.”
In a 2020 executive order, then-President Donald Trump listed topics that could not be discussed in federal employee training, including the idea that the United States is fundamentally racist or sexist. Many states have attempted to replicate this policy at public universities, according to a report from Gallup and Lumina.
The survey found that the majority of students and prospective students take these policies into account when making admissions decisions. Most in that group, Democrats and Republicans alike, said they would like to attend college in a state that does not restrict race or gender guidance.
Liberal and conservative university applicants have different concerns
A new poll from Art & Science Group focuses on partisan differences among college applicants.
Their findings suggest that liberal students are somewhat more concerned about state politics than conservative applicants. Thirty-five percent of liberal applicants said they excluded a state from their college search because of its political leanings, compared to 29% of conservative applicants.
The Art & Science Group’s research also found that liberal and conservative applicants worry about different things.
Liberal applicants cited a long list of concerns about the conservative state, including its positions on abortion rights, LGBTQ laws, gun control, racial equality, climate policy, marijuana laws and more.
Rather than specific policies, conservative students rejected the state out of fear of comprehensive liberalism, which the survey defined as “too democratic.” Conservative applicants also expressed concerns about liberal LGBTQ laws and tolerance for crimes.
Additionally, a significant share of liberal students say they avoid states that are “too tolerant of crime,” similar to the top concern among conservative students.
Most students entering college do not consider themselves to be very partisan
Research shows that one reason college applicants are so sensitive to national politics is that most students entering college do not consider themselves particularly partisan, even if many identify with a political party. It’s something I haven’t thought about.
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A study released earlier this year by consultancy firm Echo Delta found that half of students entering college identify as politically moderate. Only about 10% of prospective college students consider themselves to be very politically active.
The Echo Delta study was conducted in March and surveyed 1,044 high school students who plan to attend college within the next three years.
Echo Delta researchers found that students are most anxious about applying to colleges in high-profile red and blue states. California and New York for conservatives. And for liberals, Texas, Florida, and a lot of people in the South.
“One of our clients, a university in Florida, was able to point to over 50 students who said, ‘I like your school, but I’m not going there because of state politics.’ ,” Smith said.
