One quarter of college applicants avoid entire states over politics

A quarter of high school seniors ruled out applying to colleges in certain states this year solely due to politics, according to a new survey.

The Art & Science Group poll stated that "1 in 4 students ruled out institutions solely due to the politics, policies, or legal situation in the state where the school was located," and that the behavior was statistically true across all political ideologies.

Liberal-leaning students ruled out applying to schools in far more states than conservative-leaning students. While conservatives excluded schools in New York and California, liberals would not apply to schools in 14 states, including Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Georgia.

This survey was conducted in January and February with 1,865 U.S. high school seniors and it has a 3.5% margin of error.