<p>I heard from a student that Duke's USNews ranking is dropping because of the excessive partying by students. Is this true? Can we expect Duke's undergraduate ranking to improve or worsen for next year? (this is the lowest ranking Duke has had in the past decade; it dropped from being ranked #3 at one point)</p>
<p>It will probably continue to improve. The lacrosse scandal just needs to be forgotten.</p>
<p>I don't think Duke will drop; the only numerical effect the lacrosse scandal could have really affected is # of applicants, and I don't think they suffered in that area this year. Still, I don't think Duke will be going up either simply because of the schools it would have to overtake, which are the cream of the crop.</p>
<p>I think Duke could overtake Penn. Heck, it was tied with Stanford once in the past ten years (#3!!).</p>
<p>Duke has overtaken Penn. I posted this in another thread: <a href="http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf</a></p>
<p>ha I didn't even realize Penn was above Duke.</p>
<p>Mallomar: that study by WSJ isn't entirely reliable. Realize that it only takes into account the percentage of students that go directly from said university to grad/professional school. There are obviously quite a few students that take their time or go work first to pay off some loans.</p>
<p>Actually it was tied with Stanford for a few years. Here is Duke's historical rankings:</p>
<p>Duke
1991 #7
1992 #7
1993 #7
1994 #7
1995 #6
1996 #6
1997 #4
1998 #3
1999 #6
2000 #7
2001 #8
2002 #8
2003 #4
2004 #5
2005 #5
2006 #5
2007 #8</p>
<p>It actually is at the lowest level in the past decade. Rankings are more or less useless on a point to point level. When you are trying to differentiate between a #3 school and a #6 school it becomes more of a subjective matter. Its obvious that Duke is a top 10 school. That should be good enough for anyone.</p>
<p>MallomarCookie- I was talking about USNews Rankings. Those aren't US News rankings.</p>
<p>I wasn't talking about USNews rankings when I used the word "overtaken." I meant in terms of quality. The link I posted isn't really a "ranking" like US News is -- just an ordered list of grad school admissions stats.</p>
<p>Got it Mallomar, thanks.</p>
<p>That is my concern mahras2, I would be upset if Duke fell out of the top 10.</p>
<p>That's a scary thought, but it's unlikely. What schools would overtake it?</p>
<p>Just for you mallomar, UChicago will overtake it. ;)</p>
<p>Highly doubt that happening. Quality rankings such as the WSJ one just shows Duke's strength.</p>
<p>Duke is closely being stalked by Columbia, Dartmouth, and U Chicago.</p>
<p>Yes I used the word stalked.</p>
<p>When do the new rankings come out anyways?</p>
<p>If UChicago keeps it up it will become a regular in the top 10 again, and you know USNews: always willing to spice things up to sell magazines.</p>
<p>Anyways, once again, the WSJ ranking isn't one of "quality." I seem to recall they acquired data by viewing people's Facebooks. Wow.</p>
<p>the WSJ ranking <em>only</em> measures professional school admissions. ever consider that maybe students at duke are more oriented to be pre-professional, or those at some schools are looking more towards graduate school?</p>
<p>Brand, I agree, UChicago will only keep rising. There isn't any reason for it to drop, that's for sure.
I don't see what's wrong with this WSJ ranking specifically? Seems to be pretty straightforward. It doesn't attempt to show that one school is better than another in all aspects, just one (professional grad school admissions), and that's why it can achieve accuracy...don't feel bad that UChicago is ranked lower than Duke or whatever...it doesn't mean Duke is a better school for it. I bet if WSJ released rankings for academic-type grad schools, UChicago would outrank Duke by a lot.</p>
<p>Mallomar - I think you missed elpope's point. The ranking compares the # attending a prof school to the class size (for instance, 1666 in the graduating Harvard class and 358 attending a "top" graduate school = 21.49%). It is not based on how many applied to a top prof school and how many were accepted, which would be a better indicator of actual placement.</p>
<p>Of course, also realize that the "top graduate schools" are subjective. See the "Behind the Rankings" page and you'll notice that Stanford is missing in two of the three categories (med, business, law) if I recall correctly. Tell me again who doesn't consider Stanford to have top schools for all three professions? </p>
<p>The entire ranking is silly in my opinion. A far better idea would be to check with your actual school and find out how they fare in the law/business/med school process. Any top school is going to do well at placement.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Any top school is going to do well at placement.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yeah that's the bottom line and the subtle differences pushed by WSJ/US News/Whatever don't mean much. You're definitely right.</p>
<p>Not to beat a dead horse, but I really don't like those rankings, so I'll provide a couple of other references. There was also a discussion, albeit short, on the WSJ rankings when they first came out that can be accessed here which basically lays out my own problems with the ranking:</p>
<p>In this second link I encourage everyone to also look at the schools chosen for each category:</p>
<p>
[quote]
We focused on 15 elite schools, five each from medicine, law and business, to serve as our benchmark for profiling where the students came from. Opinions vary, of course, but our list reflects a consensus of grad-school deans we interviewed, top recruiters and published grad-school rankings (including the Journal's own MBA rankings). So for medicine, our schools were Columbia; Harvard; Johns Hopkins; the University of California, San Francisco; and Yale, while our MBA programs were Chicago; Dartmouth's Tuck School; Harvard; MIT's Sloan School; and Penn's Wharton School. In law, we looked at Chicago; Columbia; Harvard; Michigan; and Yale.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Why is Yale medical school in the top 5? Where is WashU? Where is Stanford in all three categories?! Where is NYU law and why is Michigan in the top 5? These rankings are bogus. If anything, they should expand the number of schools looked at.</p>
<p>Also, on a final note, NYU came in at #69 according to these rankings. You made a comment about its absence on this list, though partly in jest, but I would remind everyone that NYU's undergraduate class size is massive and has students with many different plans. Even taking 69th place is impressive for the nation's largest private school.</p>
<p>
[quote]
don't feel bad that UChicago is ranked lower than Duke or whatever
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Lol actually I was just messing with you b/c you had the chance b/w Chicago and Duke. I have not applied to either; if it were my way, Wesleyan would be higher up on those lists. ;)</p>