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A new Gallup poll found that students are considering state policy issues like gun control and abortion rights when they decide where to go to college.
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For a growing number of students, choosing what college to attend is becoming something of a political referendum. Survey data released today from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation show that state policies—especially on hot-button issues like reproductive rights and gun control—can have a big impact on where prospective students enroll.
According to the survey, 81 percent of students say campus gun policies are important in choosing which institution to attend and 70 percent say reproductive health policies play a role in their decision. Of those, 84 percent prefer campuses in states where gun access is restricted, and 80 percent look for colleges in states with less restrictive access to reproductive care.
The Gallup survey also found that 76 percent of students say a state’s “divisive concepts” law—like those in Florida and Texas restricting public institutions’ ability to teach content on gender, sexuality and race—would play a role in their decision to attend a college there.
Zach Hyrnowski, Gallup’s research consultant on higher education, said such policy issues still take a back seat to more immediate factors in students’ college decisions, such as cost and academic reputation. But more and more, “they’re not as far behind as you’d think,” he said.
“Is leniency on campus gun policies, for instance, an enrollment risk?” he asked. “I think it’s certainly becoming a relevant question.”
Policy as Recruitment Tool
Hyrnowski said that in today’s hyper-competitive enrollment landscape, the Gallup data suggest that a college’s decision to allow or strictly prohibit open carry gun laws on campus—or to offer reproductive health services—could make a significant difference in attracting applicants and securing commitments.
“Colleges are really struggling in many places, and these kinds of policy issues have the potential to be an enrollment differentiator,” he said.
Mary Ziegler, a legal scholar at the University of California Davis who specializes in reproductive health law, said that in the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, conservative states have passed laws attempting to codify increasingly extreme abortion restrictions. For the next generation of college applicants, especially women, reliable access to reproductive care is highly prized in a storm of fluctuating policies.
“The landscape is changing so rapidly, and that uncertainty is scary, especially since college is when people often become sexually active,” she said. “It’s not surprising that it’s influencing college decisions.”
David Strauss, a principal of Art & Science Group, a consulting and research firm that advises colleges on enrollment issues, said the data is not yet conclusive on that question. While the Gallup respondents show a clear preference for colleges in states with strict gun control laws and liberal reproductive health policies, Strauss said there’s a difference between preference and action—a gap illustrated by the fact that many Americans who support abortion rights vote for politicians who repeatedly legislate against them.
He believes the issue will only become more important to prospective students, and that colleges that aren’t thinking much about it yet should start doing so. The Art & Science Group released a report last year which found that 1 in 4 college applicants said they completely ruled out certain colleges “solely due to the politics, policies, or legal situation in the state.”
“This is going to have an impact up and down the postsecondary food chain,” Strauss said. “It’s going to be in the college’s best interest to find a way to legally protect the rights and resources that their students value regardless of where they’re located. And besides that, it’s what they owe to their students.”
That may be easier said than done in some states. In those with strict abortion restrictions, for instance, colleges could be breaking the law by offering even emergency contraceptives like Plan B. And in 11 states, including Texas and Montana, laws on the books prevent colleges from restricting open or concealed carry among students and faculty with valid permits.
‘Functional Issues’ Over Ideology
Hyrnowski said that while politics is clearly a growing factor in students’ college decisions, policy issues with material ramifications for students’ safety are more salient to their college choice than other political considerations such as free speech issues or ideological reputation.
“Campuses are now, more than ever, battlegrounds for political issues, and I think that’s probably part of it. But it’s as much functional as it is cultural,” he said. “Especially when we're talking about guns and reproductive health care, I’d separate that from the more nebulous discussion of campus polarization.”
Courtney Brown, Lumina’s vice president of impact and planning, added that while it’s true that younger generations are more politically inclined than ever, considering state policy could also be a part of students’ growing shrewdness in deciding where to spend their time and money.
“Students are becoming much more savvy shoppers, in terms of cost, in terms of employment prospects,” she said. “As all these factors become more important, these policies are, too.”
That’s true across racial, geographic and even partisan lines. Eighty-five percent of Democrats said they preferred to go to college in a state with open abortion access, according to the Gallup poll, as did 63 percent of Republicans; 91 percent of Democrats would opt for a college with restrictive gun policies, as would 71 percent of Republicans.
Brown said that commonality was the most surprising and poignant finding of the survey. She noted that gun control and abortion rights disproportionately impact young people, many of whom grew up in an age of liberalized sexual and religious mores as well as heightened anxiety about school shootings.
They also disproportionately affect lower-income, nonwhite students in red states—often the kinds of students who, regardless of their preferences, have fewer options to attend college in a different state with liberal reproductive health and gun control policies.
“These considerations put a much bigger burden on the decision-making process for underprivileged students, especially those living in red states,” she said. “In-state tuition for students in red states is obviously going to be lower in most cases than going out of state. And there are going to be many students who don’t even have any other choice, because they didn’t have the resources to be academically successful.”
For those who do have a choice, however, the Gallup data suggest that liberal state politics could be a way to pull students to campus. Hyrnowski said that in the case of Iowa and Illinois, for example—two neighboring states with different abortion and gun control laws, dwindling college-going populations, and tuition reciprocity deals between their public systems—it could be a game-changer.
“If 70 to 80 percent of students are thinking about these things when making college decisions, that’s going to have an impact on enrollment,” he said. “If that’s the difference between a couple of hundred students, especially full-paying out of state ones, that’s a big deal.”
