<p>So what's Duke international reputation like? I want to apply to either their public policy school or center of international development. I would like to take the degree abroad. </p>
<p>Has anyone heard anything from international students or traveled abroad?</p>
<p>Quick google search found me these</p>
<p>Top</a> 100 Global Universities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
THES</a> - QS World University Rankings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>I didn't really read into the criteria, but Duke is ranked top 15 in both of them.</p>
<p>Historically, Duke has not been as well-known as the top schools in the country, particularly in Asia. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, UChicago, and Berkeley, for example, have been far more well known to international students than Duke for the past several decades. However, Duke is quickly becoming more well-known as of late and other countries think very highly of a Duke degree. Duke still has a ways to go to catch some of the other schools, but it's definitely on the rise and has tried to make its blueprint heard in other countries. If you want to get employed in a foreign country at a top finance firm, for example, especially in a city like London or Hong Kong, they will know about Duke and think of it highly - don't worry. When I was studying in London, everybody thought highly of Duke when I mentioned it.</p>
<p>London is exactly the place I had in mind to find work. So Duke is highly respected in the UK?</p>
<p>It is extremely highly respected in the UK. More so than any other school besides Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford I think if you talk to regular British people.</p>
<p>Well that's really good to hear. It's great that Duke is getting the respect it deserves. And in a booming place like the UK too. My first degree was in Econ from Harvard and I am hoping to do Public Policy and International Development at Duke. I am hoping to work overseas and one of the places I am looking at is the UK/EU. </p>
<p>Evil Asian,
And you're speaking of the general British public too right? This isn't even within the financial world, political or social world? </p>
<p>Ok, which school would help me out in a place like London:</p>
<p>*Dartmouth, (non-Tuck) Masters in International Studies and Public Policy</p>
<p>*Duke, MA International Development and Public Policy</p>
<p>*Columbia, MA Modern European Studies and Development </p>
<p>*UPenn, MA Economic Development and Growth (Fels)</p>
<p>Any of the above. I'm not familiar with those programs in particular so I can't speak to the details, but I don't think the difference between those are significant - they will all be viewed as excellent in London. Frankly, in public policy, I think schools like Columbia, Harvard, Georgetown (i.e. schools in large cities) tend be viewed as the most prestigious, but this is really splitting hairs. They all have excellent reputations - choose the program you think you'd like the most and where you'd be the happiest if you're lucky enough to even have the choice of all those excellent programs.</p>
<p>I was just in London and no one I spoke to has heard of Duke. They thought I was asking them about the Duke of York and were completely confused. Without a doubt, the most prestigious schools in the US as seen from across the pond:</p>
<p>Harvard (surprise)/ Stanford/Berkeley/MIT/Columbia/Yale/Princeton
NYU/Chicago/Cornell
Duke/Michigan/UCLA</p>
<p>Really, is UChi that well known outside the country? It's not even that well known in the Chicago area lol. Every British person I know who actually lives there knows about Duke, but not some schools like Cornell and NYU.</p>
<p>Check this out:
QS</a> Top Universities: Top 100 universities in the THE - QS World University Rankings 2007</p>
<p>^It's funny that you said Chicago isn't even that well known in Chicago, then provided a link to support the assertion that Duke is seen as a great school internationally. Only that same link has Chicago ever higher than Duke, at #7 in the world. Chicago is seen very highly internationally b/c they have a ridiculous number of Nobel Prize winners, especially in Physics and Economics where it seems like a professor from there wins every year. Perhaps some people in London don't know about Duke - but just twenty or so years ago, people in many areas of the U.S. (i.e. not the south) didn't know about Duke either. Now, pretty much everybody does (although some more uneducated people still don't). The same is happening with the international community. I'd still say Berkeley and UChicago are viewed as more prestigious than Duke by internationals....Does that mean they are better schools and you're guaranteed a better job because of it? No. When I was in London, I had thought that the average person would NOT know about Duke, and when I mentioned that I go there when they asked and acting like they wouldn't know it, they were like, "Oh, of course I've heard of it. It's one of the best schools in the US." Admittedly, these were mostly university students.</p>
<p>Any world ranking with Stanford as 19 can't be taken seriously!</p>
<p>Notice how the brits have 3 of their schools in the top 5. I can see Oxbridge, but c'mon, Imperial...and 40% of the top 10 in Britain! They can't be serious!!!</p>
<p>I think Duke's location doesn't help it, and there haven't been any nobels coming from there, in terms of prestige on the world stage. Again, that can all change...</p>
<p>don't worry guys... when i get a nobel prize, our school's prestige will go up big time... since that's what it takes</p>
<p>
Haha yeah, it's weird for me to say something like that but I never really got the impression that the average Joe in Chicago really knew about UChi. It's definitely extremely well-known among academic circles internationally and intellectual high schoolers nationwide. I actually visited a friend there recently and I had to talk to about a dozen people in downtown Chicago before I could find someone who could help me get to the UChicago campus from the downtown area. At least 10 of the people had never heard of the place before. I think this partly has to do with the fact that UChi has no prominent athletic programs and is more of a niche school. That also explains why almost 90% of the LACs in the country are virtually unknown to the general public.</p>
<p>Thats because UChicago doesn't have big sports programs. So it would be more in the minds of academics than your average denizens.</p>
<p>absurdly small sample size: I recently had dinner with 3 high-profile business people from China. The normal social niceties about families, and I said I had a son in college. "What college?" they asked. "Duke," I told them. "Aaah, Duke, that is very good university," was the response. "You have heard of Duke?" I asked. "Oh yes, I know Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, and the Institute of Technology." Others had similar lists, with a few variants.</p>
<p>Take it for whatever it may be worth.</p>
<p>Hm to provide a different perspective....
When I told one of my Korean uncles, who has lived in the states for a few years, the colleges that I've been accepted to and told him that I'll be going to Duke, he was quite surprised, for names like Cornell, U of Chicago, and Berekely sounded more familiar to him.
That was the response from most of my relatives back in Korea- almost none of them knew about Duke while they were quite familiar with names like Cornell, Berkeley, and so forth.</p>
<p>who cares about international prestige. You will get a job, and unless that job is going abroad and making sure everybody knows about a certain college who the **** cares.</p>
<p>In China where I went, people know Berkeley and Harvard. Other schools, not so much.</p>
<p>I know of at least three people doing an internship or getting a job in London if that helps from Duke. I know this anecdotal evidence is too small to have any real meaning, but it's definitely possible to work internationally with a degree from Duke.</p>
<p>Forget academics, we have ABBA to increase Duke's worldwide visibility. Looks like one of the characters in MAMMA MIA wears a Duke shirt for most of the movie:</p>