<p>The statistical data was gathered before the Duke scandal broke. I think the rankings hold up pretty well. If you look at the schools that Penn "loses" to, they are generally the ones that are higher ranked in USNews, etc. and the ones that they "win" (less than 50% of applicants choose them over Penn) against are lower. And the rank order is pretty consistent - Harvard wins 2 ways by the highest percentage vs. almost any other school. In fact this table is so good that it's probably better than the very subjective USNews survey where they have so many subjective factors that they can (and do) manipulate and jump schools up and down several places every year . And USNews has schools that they overrate (Duke, Wash U.) and schools that they underrate (U. Chicago). I'll bet if you rank according to "revealed preference" which is sort of a "vote with your feet" concept that the data would remain pretty consistent year over year.</p>
<p>The Duke scandal ended up revealing some things that did not reflect well on Duke. Not that it was a place where violence against women by athletes is common - that part (which was the original media spin) turned out to be totally bogus. What the phony crisis really revealed was a politically correct leftist faculty and administration that did not stand up for its students. Not only were the accused hung out to dry before they were tried (contrary to our usual "innocent until proven guilty" system) but the whole team was tarred and there is a law suit now by a student who was on the LX team (but not accused) whose professor suddenly started giving him Fs when the scandal broke (Duke already agreed to change the grade). It also revealed a real town-gown separation between Duke and the largely minority community that it sits in.</p>
<p>Penn had a similar PC crisis many years ago with the "water buffalo" incident but the school got past that crisis and there was even some faculty support for the accused student at the time, something that was in short supply at Duke. It's pretty amazing to me that a school will take $46k a year from you but if something goes wrong suddenly they don't want to know you and they take the word of a whore over that of their own honor students because it fits some "race/class/gender" PC agenda. If this has hurt Duke in 2-ways vs. Penn and other schools, it is richly deserved.</p>