It’s an election year, which means you’re likely very tired of hearing about politics. We get it, we really do, but applying to colleges in the United States means that politics in those states matters. As has been reported recently, more and more students are taking politics into consideration when deciding where to apply, and where to attend, college.
In this article, we’re going to look at what this phenomenon looks like in practice, and whether or not this will actually have significant impacts on acceptance rates at top schools. There are a great many factors students must take into account already when deciding where to apply to college; this is simply another.
Why Does Politics Matter in College Admissions?
Politics often seems far off and distant, but the choices made by local officials, and the laws they pass, can have significant impacts on the day-to-day lives of people. When you go to college you may feel as if you are in a separate bubble, cut off from the world. This is true in some respects, but the world will still intrude on college campuses.
The laws and regulations students are concerned about are ones which impact them directly, or may impact their future career choices. In an example from further along the education pipeline, medical residents are choosing to avoid states which have passed legal restrictions on abortion. They are concerned about possible legal liability from these laws, and if they have the option to go to a state where this isn’t the case instead, well, it makes more sense for them.
In other cases, it isn’t the laws passed themselves as much as the perception of a state. Certain states are viewed as particularly radical, so students with differing ideologies may decide to avoid those states entirely. It’s not surprising that the states students say they avoid the most are Texas and California, New York and Florida.
Many colleges try to play this off, wanting to show that they are separate from the broader perceptions of a state, and that students will be welcomed there regardless of their political affiliations. This may not always be correct; colleges may have undue influence over their surrounding area, but are still overall beholden to the rules of the state they find themselves in. This is especially true for public colleges, but private schools run into this as well.
Common Political Concerns for College Applicants
So what are the most common concerns of students and parents? This depends entirely on the students, and the situation they find themselves in, plus their own value judgments. We’ll go through some of the most common political concerns we’ve seen students and parents express, and how it impacted their college list.
Reproductive Rights
Restrictions on abortion access have raised a significant specter, especially as different states have such different approaches to the issue. It is rarely access to abortion itself that raises concern, but all of the secondary issues which have revealed themselves, with patients unable to access certain medications or treatments they need. This is also one of the most impactful, as entire states full of colleges may be overlooked, depending on those states’ policies.
Religion
Students or families who are part of a certain faith often have concerns based on that. They want to be sure that students of that faith will be welcomed on campus, and be allowed to practice their faith freely. Some students will apply to a school because of its strong connection to a particular faith, such as Notre Dame, while others will avoid it for the same reason. For specific worries about antisemitism on college campuses, see our article on the subject here.
Campus Protests
College students have traditionally been one of the segments of the population that has protested the most. They have more free time, strong opinions, and the glorious confidence of youth. These protests then make headlines, and leave some families and students concerned about the atmosphere on college campuses.
There are then concerns about free speech on campuses; how much can and should speech be regulated, and which speech should be allowed. States themselves are also keen to involve themselves in this issue, with Texas being a notable example. The state government has both come out strongly against the recent protests, while in 2019 passing a very broad free speech law, one which seems to protect the same protests they are now condemning.
Will This Impact the Broader Admissions Landscape?
Students make individual decisions about where to apply to college based on dozens of factors which matter to them. Taken in aggregate, however, thousands of students making these same choices can impact which schools see the most applications, and which start to fall behind.
We are only starting to see this trend emerge; college admissions tends to change slowly, and it takes a while to see effects; we will need to wait until May to see what impacts these shifts had on admissions trends this year. That said, there are some predictions we can make.
First is that colleges themselves will work hard to downplay these trends, and convince students to apply regardless of the political concerns they may have. Their motivation is simple; colleges are already working very hard to attract students, spending millions on advertising each year. They are thus going to downplay anything that would cause significant numbers of students to turn away from applying. Whether or not this will work is uncertain, as are college’s claims that they really will remain unaffected by the politics of the towns and states they reside in.
Next, how much this impacts a college depends in large part on the demographics of that college. As an example, we’ll compare UT Austin and Rice, two well known colleges in Texas. UT Austin has a vast majority of its students, and applications, come from inside Texas. By law, 90% of the student body must be Texan. Students from out of state choosing not to apply or attend due to the school’s location in Texas may have a small impact, but not a significant one.
Rice, on the other hand, may be more impacted. While a significant number of students at Rice come from Texas, the majority still come from out of state and internationally. They are much more vulnerable to students choosing not to apply due to their location in Texas. This is likely not a large enough effect to significantly shift acceptance rates, but may be enough to raise eyebrows in their admissions office, and cause concern in Rice’s administration.
We are likely to see this trend replicated; the more a school depends on out of state students, the more perceptions of their state are going to begin to impact whether or not students apply to them. This is going to be the most noticeable in states which have the most stringent regulations of higher education (such as Florida), or those who make the news most often for their politics (such as California and Texas).
We do think this will impact admissions trends going forwards; what remains to be seen is simply the magnitude of those impacts. We do not yet have enough data to know how much this factor will contribute to the decisions students and parents make, when weighed against all else that goes into the college decision making process.
Does Politics Matter to Your College Applications?
There are two ways this can manifest; in following the application trends, and in your own choice of where to apply. It is too early yet to say how much changes in application trends may impact your own odds of admission, or affect acceptance rates at various highly competitive colleges.
At a more personal level, this can impact your choice of what colleges end up on your college list, and where you might want to attend, including whether you stay in your state or travel further afield for college. How important this is to you depends on your own values, and what you want from your college experience.
This can also be impacted by how much state governments interfere with the operations of colleges in their states. This can mean anything from banning the use of legacy admissions (as California has done), to banning scholarships which consider race (as Missouri is wrangling with), to debates on what courses can be taught (as is happening in Florida).
The more a state interferes in what colleges are doing, the more wary students may be of attending school in that state, just to see their education disrupted by new policy initiatives or fads. This is understandable for students, as much as they will want to avoid states where politics intrudes into the classroom or their lives in unwanted ways.
Final Thoughts
Politics, like culture, is an inescapable human phenomenon. Whenever you get groups of people together, they emerge. That said, the amount politics interferes with daily life can wax and wane, and the trends we are seeing now indicate that many more college students are concerned about these potential intrusions into their lives and educations. How much an impact these concerns will have on colleges remains to be seen of course, but this depends on states themselves, and how much of a say they want to have on the affairs of colleges.
This is merely another stressor on high school students, a group already struggling under an ever increasing load of pressure and responsibility while trying to plan for the future. If you want expert advice on building a college list, factoring in the latest in admissions strategy, or help analyzing how to find a college that best suits all of your needs, schedule a free consultation today. We are experts in all facets of college applications; let us help you make your life easier.
