Over A Third Of Students Are Ruling Out Colleges Because Of State Politics
Published by Forbes
One in three school seniors ruled out applying to a prospective college because of the political environment where it was located, according to a new poll by the Art & Science Group, a higher education consulting firm.
While 34% of respondents said they ruled out a school due solely to the politics of its state, an additional 12% pointed to the political environment as a factor that played some role in their college considerations. The share of students ruling out colleges solely because of state politics has increased steadily over the past four years and is now 10 percentage points higher than the 24% level seen in 2023.
The findings were based on two surveys conducted during the 2025-26 college admissions cycle. The first was fielded between February and March 2026, around the time students made their college application decisions, while the second was fielded between August and September 2026, at the conclusion of the admissions cycle.
The first round was completed by 1,347 high school seniors, including 750 who intended to attend a four-year institution as a full-time student in fall 2026. The second round was completed by 1,547 students who recently graduated from high school, including 735 who planned to attend or had begun attending a four-year institution as a full-time student in fall 2026.
Across both rounds, 38% of respondents identified as moderate, 34% as liberal-leaning, and 20% as conservative-leaning, while 8% said they were unsure of their political leaning.
The poll confirms how important political geography has become in the higher education decision-making for both conservative and liberal students. More than 15 percent of conservative-leaning students admitted that they had ruled out attending college in three states that lean left politically — California, Colorado and New York. On the other hand, 15 percent or more of liberal-leaning students ruled out institutions across several conservative southern states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.
The report cautions that the results do not mean that politics is “the dominant factor in college choice, nor does it outweigh other factors for most students.’’ But it does suggest that politics is no longer ”merely background noise in the higher education marketplace." It has become one of the filters through which many students judge an institution’s appeal, leading to a self-sorting process that appears to be increasing in force…