Who Decides What Counts as a "Good" University?

The intersection of University Dr. and College Dr. — a literal crossroads of choice.

While researching admission requirements and sociology programs at different universities, I noticed that when evaluating schools, students often mention a school's reputation and ranking just as much as its curriculum or major fit. This standard is never listed as an official admission requirement, yet it significantly shapes which school students choose to apply to and how they judge their own chances of getting in. This raised a question for me: how did a university's reputation come to function as a social standard, and why do we accept it so naturally? 

A campus in autumn — one of many paths a student might choose to walk.

Social Norms and the Weight of Reputation

This phenomenon can be explained by the sociological concept of social norms. Social norms are shared expectations about how people should behave and what they should consider valuable. Although formal norms are clearly defined in documents such as school regulations or laws, informal norms are maintained through the expectations and reactions of the people around us, even though they are not written down. Viewing a university's reputation and ranking as important can be seen as an informal norm. Expectations from family and peers, as well as information from the media and university rankings, can make certain universities seem more valuable than others.

Sanctions and the Power of Internalization

Informal norms can be strengthened through social sanctions. Sociologists define sanctions as positive or negative reactions to individuals' behavior that communities use to induce members to comply with social norms and maintain social order. For instance, when students receive compliments and recognition for enrolling in a prestigious college, these are positive sanctions.

Comparing notes with classmates — the everyday moments where social comparison happens.

In contrast, students who choose a lower-ranked school may face comparisons with peers or receive negative reactions, which function as negative sanctions. In fact, Meyer et al. (2017) found "a discontinuous drop in applications of approximately 5%" when a university moved from inside to outside the U.S. News top 50.

Social norms can operate even without sanctions. When students are repeatedly exposed to a social norm that treats college rankings and reputation as important, they may accept it as part of their own values and standards. After social norms become internalized, even if students' families and peers do not express their opinions, students may associate prestigious and high-ranking colleges with success and think that lower-ranking colleges are less valuable. This means that external social pressure turns into self-evaluation. If many students choose universities based on this standard, the hierarchy among universities may be maintained and accepted as a natural and normal order. This shows how internalized social norms can form and reproduce social order.

Rethinking the Ranking Obsession

Informal norms may be an inevitable phenomenon in society. However, uncritically internalizing the norm that values college rankings and reputation can be harmful. If students accept this standard as natural, they may fail to fully consider other important factors, such as educational curriculum, tuition fees, and personal goals. As a result, students may make choices based on society's expectations rather than their own needs and may later regret those choices. Therefore, students can use university rankings and reputation as information, but they should not accept them as an absolute standard for judgment.

Conclusion

Choosing a standard for myself, one page at a time.

Writing this piece made me realize that questioning a norm does not mean rejecting it entirely; it means understanding where it comes from before deciding how much weight to give it. As I prepare to choose a university myself, I want to use rankings as one piece of information among many, not as the final verdict on where I belong. Learning to see social norms as constructed rather than fixed is, I think, one of the most valuable things sociology has taught me so far, and it is a lens I hope to keep using long after I make this decision.

Reference list

1. Meyer, A. G., Hanson, A. R., & Hickman, D. C. (2017). Perceptions of institutional quality: Evidence of limited attention to higher education rankings. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 142, 241-258.

Link: https://epublications.marquette.edu/econ_fac/573/