<p>My brother, a senior next year, has been very involved in the community serivce center there since his first day. Next year he will be the community service center student director. He has been meeting with a group of leaders form the girl's school and one thing they all agree on is that the often repeated tag line about the horrible town/school relationship is a media fabrication. Yes, right in town where parties are held , residents get upset because of the noise. But, when you're talking about the community and school in general, the community service center has hundreds, literally hundreds, of thriving programs between Duke students and the community. Hundreds of students go in to teach in Durham schools weekly, houses are painted, churches are swept, reading is taught, kitchens are manned. My brother is incredulous that no one even touches on the fact that almost 1600 students regularly do community work and a great, great deal of it has nothing to do with work study or any payment. Where is that story?</p>
<p>I totally agree, Scribbler. My daughter, a rising junior, has never sensed the tension between the university and the city at all. In fact, she used to tutor underprivileged kids in Durham schools through Project Child twice a week, as did (and do) so many other Duke students. She does admit that the experience was an eye-opener for some of the Duke students who came from elite private high schools, yet they truly enjoyed being able to help with such a worthwhile project and became quite attached to their young students. The opportunity proved very beneficial to most everyone who participated and was a learning experience for all! </p>
<p>Congratulations to your brother for his appointment as director of the community service center! It is amazing that so many Duke students volunteer regularly in the community, yet the media chooses to focus on a strained relationship that does not even seem to exist when one asks the university students.</p>
<p>Yesterday's USA today had a featured article about the success of college graduates, and the current demand for college graduates in the job market. Duke was specifically mentioned as an elite school where recruiters were actively seeking applicants. Recruitment at Duke was up 30% this year according to the article. So, it appears that the "scandal" has not really impacted the University's "reputation" at all.</p>
<p>I don;t think the academic reputation will be effected. I think in the short term applications and yield (which has been effected) will be the consequence. I think the Lacrosse scandel unfortunately enforced an "old boy - white - rich - athletic" image of Duke that has been changing in recent years.</p>
<p>I can only imagine the signs that UNC and UMD fans will hold up at the basketball games next year...Even though it has nothing to do with the sport.</p>
<p>OF COURSE THIS WILL HURT DUKE'S REPUTATION! Are you kidding me?! Does anyone here actually believe that the constant meida coverage will have no effect whatsoever? People are going to start turning away from Duke, trust me. You guys might know some highly-qualified students that are still applying, but there are parents out there that don't want to put their kids in this type of environment. </p>
<p>To be honest, people are getting the perception that Durham is a sketchy, caucasian-hating, and trashy town. What is in Durham? Duke. a=b, b=c, therefore a=c. Duke is in Durham, the public perspective of Duke has changed dramatically. The academics might be the same, but highly-qualified applicant pools might be slimming.</p>
<p>Not sure academics will care one way or the other... An academic reputation is not based purely on the opinion of potential applicants or their parents, after all.</p>
<p>what did shakespeare write about one's good name?</p>
<p>I agree - the untoward trashing in the media has in some way robbed Duke of its good name despite not enriching the media. However, through the intelligent weighing of the facts by people who are not swayed by the slings and arrows of outrageous pundits, Duke will not end up poor. Indeed.</p>
<p>The scandal isn't going to have a material impact on Duke's rankings. Whatever impact it has won't show up in the rankings until June 2009. </p>
<p>The US News rankings are always stale by almost two years. The rankings that are now out are based on the class of 2008 i.e. 2004 admissions data. The rankings that come out in June 2007 will be based on the class of 09. The current class, the class of 2010, won't be reflected in the rankings until June 2008. </p>
<p>The real impact of the scandal, if any, won't show up in the rankings until June 2009, which will reflect the verdict of the class that is now the senior high school class. By then the scandal will be an unpleasant memory and people will wonder why Duke went down in the rankings, if it does, which I seriously doubt. </p>
<p>Remember the rankings are based on lot of things that don't relate to admissions. Only 15%!! of the ranking is based on selectivity and scores etc. It is amazing really but it is true.</p>
<p>25% of the rankings is peer assessment. I doubt that will change much as most administrators who respond to these US News surveys are thanking their lucky stars that they aren't caught up in this and will recognize that this crime that didn't happen could have happened anywhere. </p>
<p>The remaining 60% of the rankings is based on things that are totally unrelated to the scandal i.e. faculty resources, graduation rates, financial resources etc. Basically the rankings are mostly bogus to begin with.</p>
<p>In short - relax about Duke and the rankings. Most of the people who decide not to go to Duke based on this crime that didn't happen weren't likely to come anyway. </p>
<p>What people ought to worry about is a Harvard where a left wing faculty succeeded in drumming out a totally competent leader and Yale, where we have the Taliban public relations guy attending as a freshman. These should be reputation killers. But the world unfortunately doesn't work like that. </p>
<p>There is a big difference between the Harvard and Yale scandals and the Duke scandal. The Harvard and Yale fiascos were caused by university decisions. The Duke scandal is the result of alleged actions committed by a few random jocks, obviously not sanctioned by the university. And it didn't even happen.</p>
<p>Those who have struggled to gain admittance need to read the information about the administration and faculty regarding this case. </p>
<p>see: friendsofdukelacrosse.blogspot.com</p>
<p>Yes, because blogs are known to be reliable sources of unbiased information.</p>
<p>People are fickle... anyone that thinks this will have a substantial lasting damage has no long view... anyone who thinks it wont have at least a small amount of immediate effect is over optimistic.</p>
<p>DrumNDukie: Agreed on both counts.</p>
<p>I really do agree with that too, DrumNDukie.</p>
<p>Maybe I'm not viewing this correctly, but here's my opinion. I don't think it will have much of an influence on this round of Early Decision applicants. These are the kids who want to come to Duke no matter what. I think it definitely could impact Regular Decision applications -- you know the situations where a kid just wants one more reach school and is deciding between two schools? Hell-- I did it, my best friends at Duke did it, etc... I think people in those situations may be more inclined to pick the other school... but maybe not. It'll be really interesting to see how this case plays out over the summer and then into the fall, because when things become more conclusive, we can start to speculate better how it'll impact Duke. </p>
<p>Some people say the media is showing Durham as this horrible area, but recently I've been seeing that for every slam on Durham a media outlet makes, there's at least one media outlet saying the contrary. Watch HBO Real Sports -- I think they've gotten the right idea.</p>