Higher Education

State political climate has modest impact on college choice

August 27, 2024

Ray Carter

Does the political climate of a state like Oklahoma, known for having one of the nation’s most conservative-voting populations, impact whether students are willing to attend a college here?

A new report says the answer is “yes”—but only for a relatively small share of students. And the report finds that trend is also true for overwhelmingly liberal states like California.

The report indicates the students least willing to attend college in Oklahoma are largely white, upper-income, politically active liberals who are disproportionately female and overwhelmingly identify as LGBTQ.

In contrast, most black and Hispanic students have relatively few qualms about attending college in states like Oklahoma.

The report, “Politics and College Choice: How Students’ Political Views Influence Where They Enroll,” was produced by Echo Delta and ADV, two firms that serve clients in the higher-education field.

The authors noted that “political climate has emerged as a significant factor in students’ college selection process,” but that when “placed in context with other factors like cost and academic reputation” the political climate of a state or campus makes up only about 20 percent of the college decision.

Overall, the report found that political climate was a major consideration for only about 12 percent of students considering colleges, “and that these students are more likely to be liberal and highly politically active.”

In general, conservative-leaning students were far more open-minded, expressing concern primarily about attending college in California and New York.

Liberal-leaning students, however, expressed concern about attending college in numerous southern states, expressing the most concern about Texas, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina.

Notably, several of the states that liberal-leaning students expressed concern about are also some of the nation’s fastest growing, showing a disconnect between the attitudes of the general public and left-wing students.

Those results, and others, were gleaned from an online survey of 1,044 responses from U.S. high school students aged 16 to 18 who are planning to attend a four-year college within three years. The survey was conducted from March 4-8, 2024.

The survey found half of high school students identified as moderate, 29.4 percent identified as liberal, and 20.3 percent identified as conservative.

Female students were more likely than males to identify as liberal (33 percent versus 21 percent), while males were more likely than females to identify as conservative (28 percent versus 16 percent).

More than 60 percent of black and Hispanic students described themselves as moderate, with another 19 percent of black students and 15 percent of Hispanics self-describing as conservative.

Notably, non-white students were more likely to indicate they had “a lower overall level of concern about going to college in a state with a differing political climate than white students,” the report stated.

Overall, 29 percent of respondents in the survey self-identified as LGBTQ with 52 percent of liberal students identifying as LGBTQ compared to 23 percent of moderate students and 9 percent of conservative students.

The poll also found that 71 percent of politically active liberals were female.

Students with household incomes above $100,000 were more likely than less-wealthy peers to express concerns about a college or state’s political views, and to express concern “about the state’s policies towards diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).”

“Taken together, these findings suggest that concerns about attending college in a state that differs from students’ political views are more of a concern for wealthy, white, liberal students,” the report stated (emphasis in original). “The only single issue where conservative students were more concerned than their liberal peers was a concern that conservative voices might be squashed on campus.”

The report showed that nearly 20 percent of liberal students expressed concern about attending college in Oklahoma, but a far smaller percentage of moderate or conservative students expressed concern.

The survey also found that 31 percent of students were “more likely to stay in my state because of its political climate” while 55 percent said their state’s political climate had “no impact” on their decision to attend college in-state.