Political Views and College Choices in a Polarized America

Riley Acton (), Emily E. Cook () and Paola Ugalde Araya ()
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Riley Acton: Miami University
Emily E. Cook: Texas A&M University
Paola Ugalde Araya: Louisiana State University

No 18099, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We examine the role of students’ political views in shaping college enrollment decisions in the United States. We hypothesize that students derive utility from attending institutions aligned with their political identities, which could reinforce demographic and regional disparities in educational attainment and reduce ideological diversity on campuses. Using four decades of survey data on college freshmen, we document increasing political polarization in colleges' student bodies, which is not fully explained by sorting along demographic, socioeconomic, or academic lines. To further explore these patterns, we conduct a series of survey-based choice experiments that quantify the value students place on political alignment relative to factors such as cost and proximity. We find that both liberal and conservative students prefer institutions with more like-minded peers and, especially, with fewer students from the opposite side of the political spectrum. The median student is willing to pay up to $2,617 (12.5%) more to attend a college where the share of students with opposing political views is 10 percentage points lower, suggesting that political identity plays a meaningful role in the college choice process.

Keywords: politics; polarization; college choice; higher education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I23 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab and nep-pol
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