Legal Cannabis Availability Was Linked to More College Applications

A 2024 study found that colleges in states where recreational marijuana became legally available received more applications, with the largest public universities seeing the most pronounced increase. The results suggest that cannabis policy may influence where some students consider applying—but they do not show that legalization causes students to attend those colleges or improves their academic performance.

The study, published in Contemporary Economic Policy, was conducted by Christopher D. Blake of Emory University and Danna Kang Thomas and Joshua Hess of the University of South Carolina. The researchers analyzed Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data covering nearly all four-year, degree-granting U.S. institutions from 2008 through 2019.

Using difference-in-differences and event-study models, the researchers compared application patterns at colleges in states where recreational marijuana sales became available with patterns at colleges in states that had not yet adopted those policies. The models accounted for school and year effects, regional trends, unemployment, entry-level wages and, in some specifications, the share of students from in-state.

Across all institutions, the researchers’ primary model estimated an approximately 5.2% increase in applications after recreational marijuana became available. The effect was concentrated among larger schools, however. The three largest public colleges in each state recorded an estimated application increase of nearly 54% relative to comparable schools in states without legal recreational sales.

The study also found increases at large private institutions, although the estimates varied substantially depending on how schools were grouped. In one set of models, applications at the largest private schools rose sharply, while adding more schools to the analysis reduced the size of the estimated effect. This variation indicates that the headline result was driven mainly by large institutions in the earliest-adopting states, particularly Colorado and Washington.

The researchers examined admitted students’ SAT-score distribution as a measure of application-pool quality. They did not find evidence that legalization drew a less academically qualified group of applicants. SAT scores at the 25th and 75th percentiles generally moved upward in several specifications, but the increases for large public schools were not statistically significant. The strongest and statistically significant shifts appeared among some large private schools.

That distinction matters: the study does not establish that states with legal recreational marijuana attracted more “high-achieving scholars” in general. Rather, it found that colleges—especially large ones—received more applications, while available measures of the academic qualifications of admitted students did not decline and sometimes increased.

The increase also appeared to fade over time. The study’s event-study and matching analyses found the clearest effects in early-adopting states, with smaller or statistically unclear effects among later cohorts. That pattern may reflect the initial publicity surrounding legalization, differences between the first states to adopt the policy and later adopters, or a temporary shift in students’ college consideration sets.

The authors could not determine exactly why marijuana policy might affect application decisions. Students may view legal availability as one part of a broader campus or state lifestyle, or legalization may simply make a state more visible to prospective applicants. The data also did not directly identify whether applications came from in-state or out-of-state students. The researchers estimated those patterns indirectly using the geographic origin of enrolled freshmen, a method they caution is imperfect.

Nor does the study measure marijuana consumption, student grades, graduation rates or other academic outcomes. Its findings concern the first step in the college-choice process: whether students apply. The authors explicitly note that application trends cannot answer whether legalization affects academic performance or cognitive functioning after enrollment.

The study’s replication files are available through ICPSR. Overall, the evidence points to a short-lived increase in applications at some colleges following the arrival of legal recreational marijuana—most notably at large public universities—not to a broad, lasting transformation of the higher-education applicant pool.