<p>I was just wondering whether the scandal has hurt the school's academic reputation. Im not going to Duke, but just wondering. I have heard from a lot of people that are in the college counseling industry that next year's US News ranking for duke will probably go down because of this scandal.</p>
<p>yes, Duke will fall to #26 in USNews and there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth amongst prestige whores</p>
<p>Yeah, for every spot that we fall, we burn 3 benches, so we're getting fire permits for twenty-two consecutive days in order to have time to burn them all.</p>
<p>who gives a ****... US News blows regardless</p>
<p>The only criteria that the USNews rankings uses that would be impacted from the scandal is selectivity. Even this only accounts for a small % of the rankings, so there will be little change.</p>
<p>Did it hurt its academic reputation? No. Did it hurt the overall reputation of the school? Yes. I know this because I go to Landon School, the high school from which the third laxer was indicted. Whether he actually did commit the crime or not, the fact is, he was there. Many people here are supportive, many people are in utter disbelief. Trust me, even my high school's reputation has been damaged.</p>
<p>Yes, Duke will lose many high quality applications. The stereotypes are somewhat convincing though. And not many nerdy-type intellectuals look for a school with good academics, and a larger party scene.</p>
<p>Look, here's something people need to understand:
They were playing a rich, preppy, predominately white sport in a poor, predominately African-American town. There are going to be conflicts...especially when Duke is ranked nationally among colleges that have poor town relations according to Princeton Review.</p>
<p>there was an excellent editorial posted somewhere on the web that castigated the Duke administration for not reinstating the two lax players while the DA is allowing them to mingle in society for the next 12 months. </p>
<p>I'm amazed the administration's handling isn't more of a factor for HS applicants.</p>
<p>Frankly, I'm pretty much tired of hearing about this. No, it will not hurt Duke's academic reputation or US News ranking at all- I am hearing about many highly qualified high school juniors right now who want to apply. As I've said before, why would the alleged actions of a few errant athletes impact the academic reputation of a scandal? Not to mention the fact that the case for the prosecution is quickly falling apart. Knowing the attention span of the public, most people will (and already are) forget this case in a matter of months.</p>
<p>(in response to musictoad)</p>
<p>Well the administration is stuck between a rock and a hard place... first of all it is actually a university rule that any student indicted for a felony is automatically suspended... but beyond that, they (the administration) have already been accused from one side of not acting soon enough (because apparently accusations are reason enough for punishment)... and many would criticize the university venomously if they reinstated the players.</p>
<p>They are damned if they do and damned if they don't... I actually thinkg that at least Brodhead has handled the situation as well as possible.</p>
<p>No physical evidence.
The ***** can go try and start a lawsuit elsewhere.</p>
<p>This was exactly like Terri Schiavo.
This thing happens ALL THE TIME. Not all the time, but it isn't uncommon to the point where it should be blown up in the media.
Let's just focus on this one thing rather than homelessness, mediocre education, etc. There are thousands of rape cases a year. But no, let's focus on the one involving a poor stripper that put her self in a compromising position with a group of wealthy guys that participate in a sport that favors aggressiveness and physical contact.</p>
<p>I, personally, think these kinds of stories are meant to be distractions as to divert attention from real news and things that actually mean something. They are attention getting but lack substance.</p>
<p>In the end, no it will not hurt Duke's Academic Reputation.</p>
<p>In the short run, the perception will be negative of Duke but in the long run, I am sure that Duke will still be viewed as it was before the scandal. It takes a lot for a university like Duke to be damaged permanently.</p>
<p>Yes, it will hurt the reputation of the school.</p>
<p>How will it hurt the reputation? In the media reports themselves, they are constantly reporting Duke as an "elite" school and some incorrectly noting it as Ivy League. These are athletes, not a representative sample of students! And it looks more and more like the only wrong thing they did was hiring a stripper. Where I'm from, everybody still thinks very highly of Duke, on par with Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. Those who want to see Duke's reputation tarnished will in the end use this as a pathetic example to try to knock the school.</p>
<p>I would again like to point out that we had the highest yield for one of the most prestigious scholarships including a disproportionately high number of HYPSM cross-admits <em>this year</em> and the recruiting period was the weekend <em>before</em> the DNA results came back. I think it will only hurt the reputation of the school in the eyes of those who have a prejudged notion of Duke anyway...</p>
<p>Also - Smoke&Mirrors - the second line of your post was totally uncalled for...</p>
<p>You are exactly right DukeEgr93...I ended up choosing Duke over Harvard and Yale too.</p>
<p>Ashes, you're right that the media constantly mentions the high quality of Duke, but it probably gets drowned out by the sordidness of the alleged incident. People who knew of and respected Duke will know the lacrosse players don't represent the entire student body, but those who had never heard of Duke before this will forever associate the university with lacrosse and strippers.</p>
<p>I can even see the old Canada/hockey player/prostitute joke morphing into a Duke/lacrosse player/stripper joke:</p>
<p>A barber is cutting a customer's hair.
Customer: All they got at Duke is lacrosse players and strippers.
Barber: My daughter goes to Duke.
Customer: What position does she play?</p>
<p>Hopefully the joke will end with:
Customer: Was she there when they won the Women's Lacrosse NCAA's in 2006?</p>
<p>:-D</p>
<p>I doubt that the kind of highly motivated students who apply to Duke would be affected at all by the rape scandal.</p>
<p>I did a summer program at Brown the summer before my senior year of high school.<br>
During the three weeks I was there, my best friend was mugged and raped at gunpoint in the middle of Providence. The guy then somehow escaped from jail and actually stalked her and four of us (her friends) until we went home.
It was a traumatizing experience for her, and for all of us involved.
That fall, I applied to Brown.</p>
<p>Did a really terrible, frightening incident keep me from applying to a school that I had liked beforehand? No. Did it lower Brown's prestige in my eyes? No. Did I jump to the assumption that if I went to Brown, I too would be raped? No. I saw Brown for what it was -- a school that I really liked and considered attending.</p>
<p>Of course, I bet that if this had become a huge media outrage (which it didn't -- it didn't even hit local news) and turned into what the Duke thing is now, there would have been some people who chose not to apply. But then there would have been plenty of others like myself who chose to see the school, not the incident -- the incident that, unfortunately, happens EVERYWHERE. Plenty of well-qualified, intelligent, motivated students will apply to Duke. That won't change.</p>