How Authority and Hub Theory Can Be Applied to College Rankings and Students’ Decisions
There has been a constant and ongoing trend in the United States where top high school students chose to attend the highest ranked colleges. In the article I have referenced above, Times Higher Education references a survey of high school students in which 23.5 percent of students state “College is well ranked” as most important to them when choosing a college. On top of that 16.1 percent of students say that the prestige of the college is most important in choosing a college. This makes for roughly 40 percent, or two-fifths, of students chose the college they want to attend because others believe it to be good. We can also see, through looking at rankings of colleges, that the colleges that are ranked highest are ranked as such because they have the best students and best alumni.
Between students picking colleges that are ranked highest and schools being ranked the highest as a result of such students, we can apply the theories behind authority ratings and hubs. When determining the normalized authority and hub scores of hubs and authorities, respectively, we look at the number of hubs pointing at the number of authorities, and the reverse. A good authority is pointed to by many hubs, and a good hub points to many good authorities. The recursive nature of a good authority strengthening the hub which then strengthens the authority is representative of a good student going to a highly ranked college which then increases the ranking of the college and leads to more good students attending. This cycle of students’ decisions will continue to demonstrate what makes a college highly ranked and as a result continue the cycle.