<p>For undergraduates, it's fairly well established that Duke's peers are Dartmouth, Penn, Brown and Columbia. Personally I think Duke has a positive trend up within this group, but this is still the group</p>
<p>Below Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford</p>
<p>Above Cornell, N'western, Hopkins, U of C, etc.</p>
<p>slipper puts out some good stuff. However, he totally overestimates the importance of a college degree. yes, going to Duke will help you. Going to Wisconsin may not help you as much. However, if you think that Duke will get you somewhere that Northwestern will not, you are TOTALLY WRONG. I went to Northwestern and got my J.D. from Duke. Let me tell you that probably 1/4 of the class at Duke were kids form NO-NAME schools. And my friend who went to another top law school said at least a 1/4 were from no-name places. Duke is a phenomenal school. However, Slipper's system of putting Penn, Duke, and Dartmouth in a category that does not include Northwestern and U of C is absurd. According to Collegeboard, Northwestern's SAT range is 1320-1500 and Penn's is 1330-1510. I do not care if Penn has a lower acceptance rate. The fact of the matter is that Northwestern has just as talented students. I do not want to hear this bogus stuff that Penn takes more "talented students." In response, I say b.s. And as far as all of these schools, I would be interested in seeing all of these places audited. I feel like just like big corporations, some of these schools are not reporting their numbers accurately. In fact, according to new stats, Duke supposedly has higher SATs than Stanford. That does not make sense to me. Stanford is a lot harder to get into. Everyone from my area (top east coast location) who ended up at Duke were kids choosing between Duke and places like Cornell and Northwestern. These were kids that did not get into places like Stanford or Yale. But w.e., enough of my rant.</p>
<p>Why does everybody automatically equate average SAT scores with talent and intelligence of a student body? At schools like these, the difference between an average SAT of 1430 and 1470 is essentially nil. There's more to a person than a standardized test score. There are plenty of super hardworking and intellectually curious students at all of these schools. But with the brand name appeal of schools like Harvard and Brown and Penn, it's hard to imagine that Duke draws a comparable yield of the most talented students.</p>
<p>The Duke name is as good as Brown and Penn. I know a lot of kids that were deciding between these three schools (I had to decide between Brown v Duke). In general, its accepted that HYPSM is higher than Duke which is on the same level as Penn, Brown, Dart etc which is above Cornell/NU/WUSTL/Emory.</p>
<p>Once again, Harvard's peer schools are all the ivies plus MIT and Stanford, as stated by the 7 letter word..HARVARD. The little people's opinion is irrelevant.</p>
<p>Duke peers are Northwestern, U of Chicago, J Hopkins, etc.... </p>
<p>Emory is peers with maybe Vanderbilt, Tulane,etc.</p>
<p>Go to Duke and you'll be part of the "Ivy Plus Society". In the LA social network (...of school snobs), Duke's peers are the Ivies, Stanford, Chicago, MIT, Caltech, Oxbridge. Let this settle any debate--</p>
<p>Please. Harvard has two peers: Yale and Princeton. The fact that they're being polite to their other Ivy-League colleagues doesn't change that.</p>
<p>^ Exactly.</p>
<p>^Agreed.. and we must remember there is no proof what MovieBuff is saying is actually true. </p>
<p>It is usually the "little people" that group the top schools into the "Ivy League" without doing any actual research.. jeez.</p>
<p>Wow, this thread certainly has everyone jumping around. It always happens when you try and quantify amazing places. My last two cents and then I'm jumping off this thread because......it doesn't matter. These are all amazing schools and degrees from these institutions demonstrate that a graduate has tremendous potential (emphasis on "potential") to enjoy great success after school. Anyway, the op asked about: "quality of education, students, graduate placement and other academic stuff".</p>
<p>So, my last two cents is, after HYPS and (if tech-oriented, M)......oh, what's the difference, they're all fantastic.</p>
<p>I will post the Harvard reference for your perusal.</p>
<p>mtldad, you are right. Who cares about peer schools? Duke is an awesome institution. It has the same quality as the rest of the top schools we have been talking about.</p>
<p>In my opinion, You have Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, and Caltech as the super elite peer schools
and then just a small step below them you have Duke, Penn, Columbia, Northwestern, U of Chicago, Dartmouth, and Cornell as peer schools</p>
<p>Yes, we are all entitled to our own individual opinions, no matter how far from the truth they might be.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Duke is much HARDER to get into than Chicago, Northwestern, Wash U, and Michigan
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I certainly don't think Duke is much harder to get into than Chicago/Northwestern/Michigan, and I really don't think Duke is any harder to get into than WashU anymore. No matter how you look at it, at the end of the day WashU only took about 18% of applicants this year (the fact that many were waitlisted doesn't matter since the VAST majority never get off that waitlist). Percent top 10/SAT scores/etc...all of these things are similar, though Duke does sweep the floor with WashU on the WSJ feeder ranking, which I do not follow due to its flaws.</p>
<p>Oh, Duke is harder to get into than WashU and harder than Michigan for sure too.</p>
<p>I meant duke is MUCH HARDER to get into than Wash U. One can't just look at percentage of students accepted, it's the quality of the applicants too. Chicago accepts a higher percentage of students, but mostly only really great candidates apply there.</p>
<p>What do you guys think about Vanderbilt? I know it may not be as good a school as Duke, but its liberal arts program is strong. For this class the liberal arts school acceptance rate was 28 %, middle SAT range was 1350 - 1520, and 91% were in the top 10% of their high school class.</p>
<p>I think Duke's peers are more like Northwestern, Penn, Chicago & Cornell. I don't think the US News rankings are definitive since they generally vary somewhat each year. Look at WUST--I don't think anyone would say it is a peer with Brown even though Brown is ranked much lower. The same could said about Duke.</p>
<p>i want to add UVA</p>
<p>I'd agree with UVA but disagree with NU being a peer school.</p>