<p>It is quiet interesting to see how seemingly intelligent individuals, devote so much energy and time using one of the most discredited ways of ranking universities in the country to try to make themselves feel better about the institution they are planning to attend.</p>
<p>Duke is one of the best universities in the country. Individually, I would suggest to you to begin working on your inferiority complexes.</p>
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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..
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<p>Where is this apocryphal position paper?</p>
<p>Screw average SATs, I got a 1580. Does that mean I'm smarter than most of the kids at Harvard? Doubt it*</p>
<p>*Just kidding, of course I am. :D</p>
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I personally think that besides HYPSM, Duke and Columbia are the next 2 best schools in the country(besides LAC's) all things considered HANDS DOWN.
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<p>OH, well if it's hands down (with ALL CAPS no less) then I find myself in no position to disagree....</p>
<p>The source of the paper is unimportant. It's easy to believe Harvard would say such a thing for politeness reasons. Whether they actually believe it or not is another matter.</p>
<p>I would think the peers, without question are:</p>
<p>UNC, UVA, Maryland, VT, Miami, Wake Forest, BC, etc.</p>
<p>Thank you College Yahoo! Honestly once you get to campus this debate seems rather unimportant. I believe that peer institutions are the ones that you are in contact with more than the ones that you abstractly measure up against. I know this is a sports slant, but the ACC feels more like peer institutions than any other.</p>
<p>Well, the Duke administrators have a pretty clear conception of what its peer institutions are, and they are none less than HYPS (M is ... "different") and the other Ivy League schools as well. It might seem ridiculous, but I think it makes sense if you think of a peer school from an administrative perspective. So for Duke:</p>
<ol>
<li>Private -- this is important from an administrative perspective in terms of financial structure, legal limitations, etc. (though this is negotiable; I think UNC, UVA, Michigan, Berkeley would probably be considered peers of Duke)</li>
<li>Selective -- significantly more applicants than spaces; since acceptance is a recognition in itself, alumni are more loyal</li>
<li>Research, Doctoral University -- this eliminates smaller universities and also liberal arts colleges, which are clearly different in structure and goals; usually also corresponds to having a wide variety of graduate/professional programs (in contrast to MIT and Caltech which are more focused and therefore not peers)</li>
<li>Global goals, high ambitions -- this is particularly important in the modern era, where schools that fail to reach across international borders will fall behind; somewhat subjective</li>
</ol>
<p>So at first glance one might think, well that encompasses a huge number of schools. Actually, it doesn't. If you manipulate the "selective" criterion to, say, 25-30% maximum acceptance rate, you're actually at a very small number, relative at least to the 3000+ institutions of higher education in the US.</p>
<p>Is it useful to nitpick beyond this?</p>
<p>I've enjoyed reading this thread and everybody's opinion. Duke is a great school without question. Picking peers is kind of like deciding who you would sleep with. Of course you only pick the good looking ones. Now, the question is would they sleep with you :)</p>
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Picking peers is kind of like deciding who you would sleep with. Of course you only pick the good looking ones. Now, the question is would they sleep with you
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Lest I miss an opportunity to promote Duke, I should mention that Duke is quite good/safe in that area. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>These are all great debates. Which school is the most prestigious. Which school is best know. Which school has the most talented schools. </p>
<p>What's missing is, which school is the best fit socially and academically for the student, which school has the best professors in the area the student is interested in, and which school has made the best financial offer. It is not as if you are comparing a mediocre school and a top tier school. Rather you are comparing all top 25 schools (on anyone's ranking system).</p>
<p>If the student goes to Duke or Emory or UMich and works hard and excels that student will get into a top grad school or land a great job.</p>
<p>But he won't have the approval and envy of his fellow CC members, which is a fate worse than death ;)</p>
<p>Notwithstanding my typo, you got my point. Perhaps it is all about the "CC Envy" factor, which I failed to mention. It's not about the student being happy, or finding the school school that has the strongest program in that student's area of interest, or about whether the school will bankrupt the family, it's about impressing others.</p>