<p>I think Duke admissions wants to improve yield, which is one reason why ED went up this year. Taking lots of ED students has been the Penn yield strategy the last few years (now over 50% of class ED), and I think Duke is starting to follow the same strategy.</p>
<p>I’ve also heard that the ED pool was stronger this year. Although, that could just be a justification for the higher acceptance rate. It is a bit of a self fulfilling prophesy though. Once word gets out that Duke (like Penn) favors ED applicants, more students will apply ED which will undoubtedly give the admissions office a larger (and consequently better qualified) applicant pool to choose from.</p>
<p>warbersrule: Great research, truly appreciated, and your point is clear. However, I believe your time-context is far too abbreviated. Some years ago, I read that the only Western institutions to last a millennium or more were universities and religions – not nations, corporations, or governments. That’s the perspective I believe should apply to the trajectories of our foremost universities; not this year’s anomaly in U S News’ assessment, or last year’s transient “blip” in the Bloomberg-Businessweek appraisal of MBA programs, or whether a law school is better judged by its alumni who clerk on the USSC or by mid-career salaries.</p>
<p>Forty years ago, Duke was arguably the best university in the South/Southeast. Its standards were very high, but it really was not competitive with the Ivies, Stanford, and so forth. Excellent leadership and extensive investment of talent and treasury (by adminstrators, faculty, researchers and alumni) profoundly altered Duke’s course. Today, Duke is reasonably placed approximately in the middle of the Ivies (marginally behind Harvard, Princeton and Yale, but slightly ahead of Cornell, Brown and Dartmouth). That’s astonishing progress, and it occurred in an “eyeblink” as enduring, superior universities should be viewed. </p>
<p>College Confidential’s target audience (and even their parents) are very young; they understandably want immediate-term evaluations. However, I believe that is a major error. When a teenager who is bright enough to attend top-tier universities opts for “A,” rather than “B” or “C,” he makes a significant decision frequently with lifelong ramifications. While the reputation of those universities today is important, even more critical is their probable stature in a few decades, when that nascent freshman will likely compete for his profession’s most responsible positions.</p>
<p>Duke’s admission office is getting complacent falls somewhere between silly and stupid.</p>
<p>This is such a silly discussion. Duke undergrads are more talented and academically gifted than ever before. You all have Facebook accounts right? Check out the Facebook groups for Harvard Med’s Class of 2017, Harvard Business School 2015, and HLS 2016. Duke is one of the top 5 represented schools at the former two programs and is in top 10 for Harvard Law.</p>
<p>Clearly graduate and professional school admissions officers don’t think Duke is slipping…</p>
<p>Totally agree with goldenboy. </p>
<p>The question here is not “oh no we are slumping in the eyes of the public”</p>
<p>or “we are slumping in the eyes of those <em>questionable</em> US News rankings”</p>
<p>We R who we r. The amazing research and projects and placement at grad schools from duke speaks more to how we are doing than those rankings/</p>
<p>tennisboy, no offense, but I’m pretty sure that willfully ignoring facts can be interpreted as being stupid. </p>
<p>To all of you saying that rankings aren’t important, I feel that it is my duty to warn you that you are heading down a slippery slope. A few years ago Reed was a top tier LAC. Then, one fine day, they decided that rankings weren’t important. Look at where they are now (completely irrelevant). Chicago decided it was above ‘petty’ rankings. It faded into relative obscurity for decades before its recent resurgence due to the fact that it is now overcompensating for its prior apathy by relentlessly gaming the rankings (which Duke by the way needs to do more of). Once Northwestern decided that rankings were important, its yield rose 15% in approximately 5 years. Cornell was considered the pinnacle of academia in the 20th century. Look at where it is today (virtually relegated to the realm of schools like WUSTL and UCLA). It would be extraordinarily foolish for a school like Duke to disregard and underestimate the importance and influence of college rankings. If Duke chooses to go down that road, mark my words, it will be no better than Emory within the decade. If on the other hand it chooses to aggressively improve, it may soon join the likes of Stanford and Columbia among the perennial academic super elite. The choice is yours to make, and I fear that many of you are making a very, very bad decision which will have lasting repercussions. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>Also, the great graduate placement is a relic of an era when Duke was ranked higher than it is today. The best students go to the highest ranked schools. That’s just how it is. Deal with it. Making vague statements like “we are who we are” isn’t going to make the problem disappear. Acknowledging that a problem exists and taking steps to deal with it in a proactive manner will.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Is Chicago really “gaming” the system, and if so, how and why don’t other schools just do what they’re doing?</p>
<p>I think that Curvyteen is missing a big piece, which is both good and bad news. The so called drop in rankings, which is really only a few points, corresponds to the Duke Lacrosse debacle. Even though todays students don’t remember, or may not even be aware of the whole fiasco, it impacts todays rankings both for those who don’t know what happened and those who do. For the parents, or older siblings, who vaguely remember what happened, it took some of the sizzle away from the school and you can see that in the drop. Even though the students were innocent, and the prosecutor was disbarred, the ny times and sports illustrated and other publications hammered relentlessly away leaving a bad taste. It is just like the restaurant down the street that was falsely accused of food poisoning, maybe you will eat somewhere else anyway. And for those who do know what happened, primarily alumni, the visceral distaste for the president and the administrators is still around, depressing giving.</p>
<p>What is the good news? Duke is the youngest, by far of any major research university. All the reasons for its rise, culture, dynamism, resources are still present and in fact vastly improved. In their own way, rankings do matter. But despite the most shattering news coverage Duke’s reputation was only slightly impacted and then, only in comparison to much older and also elite institutions. Duke has not been complacent but has still continued to attract more and higher quality applicants. Its curriculum has been revamped and is outstanding. It has a variety of programs and institutes that offer an incredible academic experience. It is more diverse than ever and its physical plant much improved. There is not reason to think that whatever minor blip arose in 2006-2007 will have any long term impact on the success of the institution. To the contrary, not many schools could have survived such a blow and advanced. </p>
<p>These other institutions, Penn, Brown, Chicago, are also outstanding institutions. You have to be on your toes at all times to keep up, and Duke has been doing that.</p>
<p>curyteen: lot of baseless assumptions I’m assuming to draw attention to yourself. Your posts make it clear you have nothing to offer. For that reason it is your duty if you want to grasp your only possible positive contribution is to offer nothing. (Gender unimportant).</p>
<p>Hmmm…rankings are important because lots of people read them. Lots of people read them because they are important. Circular logic? Also, rankings are considered facts only in the alternative universes of talk radio and social media.</p>
<p>I agree with manyloyalties about the impact of the lacrosse fiasco. In addition to the negative (false) publicity, especially in the Northeast, and the impact with alumni, I believe the Duke faculty reputation took a tremendous hit by rushing to judgement and publishing an open letter signed by dozens of professors who never apologized for being embarrassingly wrong.</p>
<p>I think that we’ve been over everything that needs to be said. Will the moderators be so kind as to lock this thread?</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, why isn’t Duke posting its yield rate like other schools?</p>
<p>Duke traditionally posts its yield rate on the last day of June or the first day of July. Looking at the small number of people admitted from the wait-list, the yield has undoubtedly improved.</p>
<p>Universities in the top 10 for yield rate (2011).</p>
<h1>1. Brigham Young</h1>
<h1>4 U of Nebraska</h1>
<h1>5 Yeshiva</h1>
<h1>6 U of Alaska</h1>
<h1>7 GA Southern</h1>
<p>U of North Dakota just missed the top 10 and came in 11th.</p>
<p>Curvyteen, you say you are a junior in high school telling Duke and alumni to “mark your words” about the impact of changes in ranking? Comparing Duke to Emory? Honestly, what in the world do you know? Please, give us all a break. The topic here has been beaten to death…</p>
<p>I also said that Duke (perhaps more so than any other school) is poised to become the next Stanford. I have the freedom to broadcast my opinions, and you have the freedom to disregard them if you believe they are unfounded.</p>
<p>Curvy, as a high school student getting ready to apply to colleges remember Duke is very selective, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If things don’t work out for you at Duke you should consider other wonderful universities like Cornell, Wash,St.L, and Emory. You should include your yield thoughts in your “Why Duke” essay. Good Luck</p>
<p>rmldad </p>
<p>
The difference is they target different crowds. It’s pretty clear that athletics scholarships are used to target talented athletes while merit-based (academic) ones are used to target HYPS admits. The former is necessary if the school wants to continue to compete in one of the major conferences or Div-I FBS.</p>
<p>bud123, I’m definitely going to apply to safeties as well as other reaches like Columbia, Penn, Stanford, Princeton and maybe even Chicago.</p>