This spring, high school seniors across the country will weigh school rankings, academic specialties and campus life as they decide where to commit to the next chapter of their life. For some, there will be another factor to consider: state politics.
The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 — and clearing the way for some states to impose bans on abortion — changed the calculus for some students. Grace, a high school senior in South Carolina, grew more concerned by the idea of living in a state with limited access to abortion. She described feeling nervous that abortion bans would lead to more restrictions on women’s rights in general.
“I’m not comfortable with being in a state that doesn’t value who I am or value my rights as a person,” she said — a requirement that caught her mother, Andrea, off guard. (They’ve asked us not to print their names out of fear this story could impact Grace’s college admissions chances.) Andrea says she leans against abortion personally.
“I was pretty mad about it, because I felt like she’s so young,” Andrea said. “Why is this a consideration? This is for older women or older girls, not a high school girl, to really think about.”
The conversation is part of a growing trend. A Gallup survey conducted in 2022, after the Dobbs ruling, showed 73% of unenrolled young adults say reproductive health laws are a factor in their decision on where to enroll in college.
“I think we’re seeing with this younger generation [that] they are incredibly engaged,” said Sara Harberson, a private college admissions counselor. “They are talking about it in their classrooms, they’re talking about it with their friends, and they’re expressing their concerns or choices with their parents as well.”
Harberson has worked with hundreds of families over the years to navigate the application and admissions process, which includes helping them craft lists of potential schools. She says students are driving the conversation about regional politics when considering colleges and the states where they are located.
“I don’t think we have more liberal students or more conservative students,” Harberson said. “I think we have a more vocal college-bound population, and when they say that politics matters, state politics, I think they really mean it.”
That’s true even if it leads to tension at home over where to apply to school.
“I think we can have a conversation now. In the beginning there was no conversation,” Andrea said. “There was a lot of yelling.”
For other families, like the Sonys in Columbus, Ohio, all members agree access to nonrestrictive reproductive health care is nonnegotiable when it comes to choosing a college.
Seventeen-year-old Syna Sony is a high school senior who wants to study business in college next year. When she looked at a list of the top undergraduate programs, she immediately eliminated schools in states with restrictive abortion laws, including the University of Texas at Austin, a school she had long dreamed about attending. It’s a decision her mother, Deepti, supports after experiencing the impact of an abortion ban firsthand.
As a woman in her late 40s and a mom of two, Deepti Sony was surprised to learn she was pregnant late in the summer of 2022.
“I said, you know, I’m pretty old. I’m not looking into extending my family at this point,” she recalled telling her doctor. Deepti Sony, unaware that a law banning abortion after six weeks had gone into effect in Ohio in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, was shocked when she learned her OB-GYN could not help her. She ultimately drove herself five hours to Buffalo, New York, where her sister is an OB-GYN, to receive the care she was seeking.
“In that moment, I was thinking about the young girls, the teenagers, the girls in their 20s,” Deepti Sony said.
Now, the Sonys say reproductive health is top of mind as Syna applies to schools. Last November, Ohio voters added abortion access to their state constitution, rolling back the ban that had impacted Deepti Sony. They say it’s been a relief for the family, as her daughter can now consider schools in her home state.
“It really gave me the option to look into them more thoroughly and have more options when it comes to applying to schools,” Syna Sony said.
A wide range of political concerns affects college choices
Abortion access isn’t the only legislative concern on the minds of students. Gun laws and LGBTQ+ rights are also top concerns. And in an Art & Science Group poll taken last spring, a quarter of high school students across the political spectrum ruled out institutions solely due to the political policies in a state.
When Aly Phillips sat down to design their list of dream schools, they were initially concerned with course options, dorm life and meal plans. Quickly, they started to factor in state politics when imagining themselves on campus.
“Immediately I had to say no to Belmont [in Tennessee] and a school in Miami,” Phillips decided, “because I’m not safe there.”
Phillips identifies as nonbinary and part of the LGBTQ+ community and is concerned that the laws could change quickly in a conservative state. “I don’t know how far people will push things, and if I’m there when they push things too far, I don’t want to not be able to get out,” Phillips said.
Those considerations forced agonizing cuts to the colleges Phillips was considering, since they’re a musician and interested in a niche program that few colleges offer or specialize in: scoring video games.
“I see it all the time,” says Christina Taber-Kewene, a college admissions counselor working with Phillips. She has other students willing to make big sacrifices in the interest of leaving certain conservative states. One client of hers who is gay and living in Miami would leave behind a state scholarship program funded by the Florida lottery.
“She’ll qualify for Bright Futures where she can get free tuition, but she’s really, really wanting to be in the Northeast. She wants to leave the environment,” Taber-Kewene said.
Phillips knows that college is a place to broaden your horizons and explore the unfamiliar but counters that “it’s different when you are fearing [for] your own safety and your own well-being and putting yourself at risk.”
Politics aren’t the only consideration
Even as new concerns and considerations make their way into the conversation, finances remain high on the priority list, particularly for parents.
“I think there is a shrinking percentage of college-bound students that can just apply to college and not worry about the cost of attendance,” said Harberson, the admissions counselor. “A lot of those big public universities in conservative states, for example, they tend to be a lot more generous than some of the institutions in liberal states.”
After years of hard work and top grades, Grace has been offered scholarships at several schools in more conservative states including the University of Alabama, but the South Carolina student still wants to attend college in a state with more liberal laws.
“I thought, this child has no concept of money,” her mother said. “She doesn’t understand how incredible that is. Any full ride is incredible. And so we argued about it quite a bit. Her dad was involved. And I remember the day that the email came in, that she had gotten [accepted], her dad’s response was, ‘Roll Tide.’ I’m like ‘Roll Tide, Grace,’” she said, referencing Alabama’s ubiquitous cheer.
Grace remembers the moment differently.
“I was happy about [being accepted],” she said. “But it kind of made me a little bit anxious. I started looking into the politics of Alabama a bit more.”
Grace has applied to 38 different schools, betting that if she casts a wide net she’ll find a school she feels comfortable attending and can afford. But she’s already started preparing herself for a different outcome.
“Just because of the money factor,” she said. “If money wasn’t an issue, we wouldn’t be [considering those schools], but because of the money it’s kind of like a give and take unfortunately.”
It’s a recurring discussion at the dinner table for their family.
“We will discuss, you know, each point: the money, we will discuss how comfortable she feels in that state, how we feel about that state and their policy and their political comments,” Andrea said. “And then we’ll just make a decision from there. I don’t know what else to do.”
The tension over the issue has subsided some between daughter and mother. “I think we both [have] come to a point where we can have a civil conversation without both sides being really angry,” Andrea said. “I don’t want her to feel unsafe. And I don’t want her to be unhappy.”
It’s another example of politics infiltrating everyday life decisions.
“It’s a little mind-blowing, and I really feel sorry for the people coming behind us,” Andrea said.
