<p>What is the general perception of Duke from the eyes of college students, regular adults, and/or employers in terms of prestige? In general, if you say you go to Duke do they say "WOW" like they would for an ivy or just something unrelated to academics like "nice basketball team".</p>
<p>I think it's a mixture of both. [I'm a junior who lives in New Jersey by the way.]</p>
<p>This guy I know who was really into Harvard didn't even know what Duke was. He appiled there because his parents wanted him to, and he never realized how prestigous the school was.</p>
<p>Then, there's me/my parents. Duke doesn't have the "WOW NICE SCHOOL DUDE" effect that Harvard, Brown, Yale, etc. would have, but neverless we know it as one of the top schools.</p>
<p>Then again my school swears by Ivy League...and I haven't met any senior yet who seriously considered Duke. This is probably more of the location aspect than the prestige/academics/etc.</p>
<p>I agree with above in that the responses vary widely (I lived in Boston and New York for 8 years). People in academic circles will say "great school!". Common folk will say "great basketball team!" Employers will say a little of both.</p>
<p>It doesn't have the cachet of HYP, where people just say "wow!" or "oh!". The other ivy's have a stronger Northeast presence than Duke because of simple geography. But, Duke probably has more of a presence in the South than Columbia, Penn, etc. so it evens out depending on where you live.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies. I was also wondering if a hard-working Duke student can compete straight up with HYPSM kids for job interviews and grad school placement?</p>
<p>West thinks Basketball
East thinks WOW!!!!!!</p>
<p>Duke kids can compete with anyone. If someone doesnt know about Duke, then thats a poor reflection on them, not Duke.</p>
<p>oracle1,
Duke has absolutely no problem competing with HYPSM kids in the classroom, on the athletic fields, in the social activities, in the grad school application process and in the hunt for post graduate employment. To say that it is a basketball school is a massive misunderstanding of the quality of the students and the school. The kids are EVERY bit as talented intellectually and the school provides IMO a more complete undergraduate experience than any of the Ivies. In my mind, Duke and Stanford are the premier schools in the country with the premier undergraduate experiences to offer to students.</p>
<p>Prestigious, yes, but also - serious party school. The lacrosse scandal was apparently a fabrication, but it probably gathered momentum because it sounded very plausible given Duke's social life reputation.</p>
<p>Compared to places like U North Carolina and U Virginia or even Vanderbilt, Duke is hardly a party school. Maybe compared to the Ivies, there is a higher social quotient (yes, there is Greek life at Duke), but it is far from a dominant aspect of life at Duke. And IMO, it is a very attractive thing to meet students from places like Stanford and Duke (not to mention UNC, UVA, Vanderbilt) who are smart as heck, fun to be around and socially comfortable and skilled.</p>
<p>I think of Duke as compatible with the Ivy League in almost every aspect except location. I'm from a prestige-obsessed school in New York, so our field of vision remains focused on the Ivy League and more or less ignores other excellent schools like Duke, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Northwestern, Chicago. Still, the school is very much respected/admired/feared, and "I go to Duke" carries the same weight as saying "I go to.... (insert Ivy League school here)"</p>
<p>I'm from the South, and here, Duke carries a great deal of prestige. (Also, a ridiculous number of people from my town got in/are going this year...it's kind of weird.)</p>
<p>We live in southern New Jersey. It has been more difficult for our HS to place students at Duke than the IVYs. I don't know why. When my SS tell people in this area that they are going to Duke, 99.9% people appreciate the accomplishment and consider it on par with many of the IVYs.</p>
<p>We live in New England. Even with such an "Ivy" presence, everyone we know agrees with posts #10-12.</p>
<p>"99.9% people appreciate the accomplishment and consider it on par with many of the IVYs." </p>
<p>I would have to agree with that from our regional perspective as well.</p>
<p>P.S. S went to one of the most "prestige-obsessed" prep schools in the country! ;)</p>
<p>Duke is not up there with HYPSM in academics but its close</p>
<p>However, its on par with Penn, Columbia, Dartmouth, etc. in everything academic, professional, reputation-wise in academic/business community</p>
<p>... and is better than all of them in terms of sports (read: Basketball next year)</p>
<p>We've had better success with Ivies than Duke the last 5 years or so. And yes, that includes HYP</p>
<p>Duke is absolutely prestigious in the Northeast. It is on par with Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, Amherst, and Williams (all of which are slightly below HYP). There is no job that Duke won't put you in the running for.</p>
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We've had better success with Ivies than Duke the last 5 years or so. And yes, that includes HYP
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<p>Hmmm...I wonder if it got anything to do with the way you count. There are 8 Ivies but there's only one Duke. I doubt your school has more difficulty to place people into Duke than Harvard (factor out connection/legacy)</p>
<p>
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Duke doesn't have the "WOW NICE SCHOOL DUDE" effect that Harvard, Brown, Yale, etc. would have, but neverless we know it as one of the top schools.
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<p>Actually switch Duke & Brown around and that's what I hear...</p>
<p>Coach K! That's tongue-in-cheek BTW.</p>
<p>considering I now live in NC there are more then a couple people obsessed with duke at my school :P </p>
<p>but over half of my senior class is going to UNC...</p>
<p>But before I moved to NC I knew about it, well I was living in Nashville then so wasn't really all that far away from it and still in the "south"</p>