Independent Study:
Is the fall of Roe vs. Wade affecting current Texas high school students’ decisions regarding which states they would consider for college?
I didn’t understand what Roe Vs. Wade was until it was about to be taken away. When the Supreme Court’s plan to repeal it was leaked, I wasn’t sure what it meant. But then it was all over TikTok. Do I really want to get info about my human rights over TikTok? Laws made by the mostly old white men in the Texas State Capitol could dramatically impact my life; I would be a criminal if I ever chose to end a pregnancy in my home state of Texas. I want to know more about how the Dobbs decision to repeal Roe is immediately impacting choices people my age are making– like which states they are willing to live in for college. I am a high school student from Texas and want to research whether or not my peers are willing to stay here for college, and if they do, do they know how the Dobbs Decision might impact their lives? For example, will they be more likely to vote and push back against Texas’s strict laws if they stay? I wanted real and original data, not just info filtered through Tiktok and other media.
So in the spring of 2023, I did an independent study with my history teacher to collect data related to my questions. Using the website Survey Monkey, I created a survey designed to better understand the views about recent abortion laws in Texas, the related loss of rights of high school teens in the Austin area, and how that might impact college choice. I used Snowball Sampling, a commonly-used social science research method in which research participants identify other potential subjects. I sent the survey to ten people and they snowballed it, sharing the survey with three people themselves. I also posted the survey on all of my social media platforms, collecting a total of 53 responses. This was a very small-scale project limited to people I know and people they know, therefore the results are within a narrow demographic. However, it is a topic I would like to pursue further when I have the resources and academic support to do so; I believe that the impact of the Dobbs Decision will continue to have far-reaching consequences that we haven't yet begun to understand fully.
Using Survey Monkey, I created a survey with 14 questions, only a 3-minute survey. Click here for the data that I found.
Given the narrow scope of my research, the results are only a very partial view of how Dobbs is affecting college choice. Nevertheless, I was surprised that finances were a bigger consideration than abortion rights in college choice. Click here to see further takeaways and observations.
Copyright © 2023 Perspectives of Texas High School Students on Abortion and College Admissions - All Rights Reserved.
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