Students Increasingly Consider Politics in Choosing a College
Published by Inside Higher Ed
Political considerations play a growing role in students’ college-going decisions, according to a new student poll by the Art & Science Group. More than a third (34 percent) of respondents surveyed over the summer said they ruled out a school based solely on the politics of its state, up from 28 percent in 2024 and 24 percent in 2023. Another 12 percent said politics played some role in their higher ed thinking, even if it didn’t change where they ultimately applied or enrolled.
The poll’s new iteration was intended to show whether the 2024 results “were really bound to the runup to the presidential election and the high-volume things coming out of the political sphere,” said David Strauss, co-founder and principal at the Art & Science Group. The new findings indicate “it wasn’t a blip” connected to Donald Trump’s re-election: “It has gone from more than a quarter of students in 2024 to a third of students now in 2026, so that phenomenon is increasing in intensity.”
The findings underscore that “we’re segregating ourselves even more into our own bubble, and we’re doing it younger,” he said. “That worries me.”
The poll also zeroed in on when during the college application process politics impacted students’ choices, with findings similar to 2024. Of students who said they ruled out a college due to politics, nearly three-fourths (73 percent) said it shaped their thinking early on about institutions they might be interested in, 59 percent said politics influenced their decisions about where to apply, 25 percent said they considered it in comparing admissions offers and 13 percent said it helped them determine where to enroll.
“The most intensive role politics is playing is when students are deciding what schools to look into,” Strauss said. “In other words, the colleges may never even see these kids or have an opportunity to try to convince them of something. Those are big impediments for institutions.”
Students who ruled out colleges because of politics looked at both the institutions themselves and the states where they were located. Over 70 percent said they had evaluated specific colleges and universities, and nearly half cited states or regions.
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