<p>Would Duke's peers be something like Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn, or would it be more like Northwestern, Emory, and WashU?</p>
<p>Im asking about quality of education, students, graduate placement and other academic stuff.</p>
<p>first of all, Northwestern and wash U (ok)</p>
<p>Emory is not a peer to anyone of those up there. Emory, Vandy, Michigan are peers.</p>
<p>Northwestern/Cornell are definitely peers. IN fact, NU has higher SATs than Cornell.</p>
<p>Look at Duke's historical rankings. As much as I hate those rankings they do a decent enough job in showing where each school stands if you look at long time periods. Duke has never been ranked lower than 8 in the past decade (all the time I have data for).</p>
<p>And, in advance, please don't try to quote that NY Times article. It has some serious flaws. I mean one of the errors is blatant. Stanford edges out Yale in yield according to Yale's newspaper, but that research paper shows Yale absolutely creaming Stanford when it comes to yield.</p>
<p>I would put Duke undergrad alongside Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Penn.</p>
<p>Above Northwestern and Cornell
Which is above WashU.
Which is above Emory. </p>
<p>Personal opinion.</p>
<p>I agree with Slipper1234</p>
<p>^ agreed. I'm definitely choosing Duke over Penn</p>
<p>Sorry, can't agree with that....both as a parent and employer. Also, I've been or visited all of these schools except for Dartmouth and Cornell</p>
<p>All qualified by a kid admitted to these schools (at their respective levels) should go where they feel best and not be obsessed with their rankings:</p>
<p>Columbia/Dartmouth</p>
<p>Penn/Brown</p>
<p>Duke/Cornell/WashU/NU (on this one, you'll have people battling back and forth on the merits of each of these schools against the other....I really feel it's what your personal bias, location, etc. is on this line). I can categorically tell you that graduates of these schools with similar credentials would be looked at equally. However, if some wanted to perceive that Duke was slightly above the other three, I can be swayed.</p>
<p>Emory</p>
<p>This is also qualified by the fact that I have an East Coast/northeastern point of view.</p>
<p>Personally I think it's UNC, UConn, Kansas, UCLA, Syracuse, Michigan State, and Kentucky when they get their act to together.</p>
<p>mtldad: Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, and Brown all have the "Ivy League" bias when it comes to employers.. but when it comes to how qualified the students are, Duke is equal to these other four.
Maybe 15-20 years ago, Duke had less prestige than the other four, but those days are gone!</p>
<p>I know of people that get into Duke that don't get into Penn & Brown.. and I know of people that get into Columbia & Dartmouth that don't get into Duke. It becomes very random when you have thousands of top students applying for college.. many colleges have very different perceptions of who is the best.</p>
<p>Employers in the North may like Ivy League schools better... BUT this is about who has the smartest students.. and Duke definitely is not below Brown, Penn, Columbia, or Dartmouth.. and you are basing this on a perception from many years ago.. Duke has gained a LOT of prestige since then.</p>
<p>mtldad,
Is your S going to NU or Wash U ?</p>
<p>The beauty of the boards is that everyone has an opinion. Your comments are fair to consider, it's just those are my personal perceptions. As well, your comment of "many years ago" amused me. By the way, I have a lot of respect for Duke's gain in prestige from "many years ago". </p>
<p>That being said, the poster asked about: "quality of education, students, graduate placement and other academic stuff", he did not ask about the "smartest students". If that was the sole criteria, sorry, but you've got to add a lot more schools to the mix because you are part of a very, very smart generation. Just check out admittance rates at all of the top schools for this year.</p>
<p><a href="http://wsjclassroom.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://wsjclassroom.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf</a> </p>
<p>Duke does pretty well for itself with grad-school placement and Duke is extremely undergrad focused (as are the other top schools, even places such as Harvard...)</p>
<p>I agree that there are a lot of top schools.. but all I am saying that my personal opinion is that there really is no way to say which school is better out of DDCBP.. since these five schools, in my opinon, are all really the same when it comes to quality of education & prestige and I know a lot of people put Duke below the other four schools simply because Duke isn't "Ivy League"... </p>
<p>Wash U, Cornell, and NU are awesome schools and Duke is definitely not much better.. but my argument is that Duke isn't worse than BCDP not that Duke is much better than WCN.</p>
<p>That's fine. Fact is, we're splitting hairs. Now if only Coach K can pull it together for next season.....</p>
<p>The poster asks....Who are Duke's Peer Schools? </p>
<p>Well, Harvard has gone on the record before, stating on a position paper " H considers peer's schools Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, MIT, Stanford and Cornell ( the ivies plus MIT and Stanford ). Therefore, none of those are peers with anyone else...</p>
<p>Duke, U of Chicago, Northwestern, Wash U...maybe Michigan...are peers. I agree that Emory is a totally different league.</p>
<p>I don't think Harvard and Cornell are peers (for undergraduate at least).</p>
<p>Duke is much HARDER to get into than Chicago, Northwestern, Wash U, and Michigan!!!!!!!
I know of people OOS who get into Michigan with below a 3.5 Weighted.. I don't know of anyone with below a 3.9 Weighted GPA that got into Duke..</p>
<p>Where is this position paper from Harvard?? You might as well show us your source...</p>
<p>And Duke's harder to get into than Cornell.. but not by much, I will admit.</p>
<p>Duke is on par with Brown, Dartmouth, Penn & Columbia!!!!</p>
<p>Peer schools are defined by schools with students of similar quality.</p>
<p>According to US News & World Report.. Duke's median SAT score is a 1450!!</p>
<p>Dartmouth is 1450, Brown is 1435, Penn is 1430, and Columbia is 1440.. I'm not surprised that Duke has an higher median SAT score than Brown, Penn, or Columbia. I'm guessing many of you here are...</p>
<p>In fact, as my Wall Street Journal URL shows.. Duke is much higher than Cornell, Wash U, Northwestern, Chicago, and Michigan.. when it comes to top grad school placement! In fact the only schools Duke loses to are Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, and Wiliams!!!</p>
<p>Emory is where people go when they get rejected by Duke</p>
<p>And Duke's bball team shall rise again, :D!</p>
<p>An Interesting Article about WashU: </p>
<p>"Washington University's True Life: How other University students stack up"</p>
<p>From an east coast viewpoint, slipper's listing of the peer schools is the most accurate.</p>