<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>
<p>I know the NYTimes Data is false because I read on a Yale website that Stanford beat Yale last year for the first time in History (it was like 51-49, but still...) I have heard Duke/Penn split applicants as well. </p>
<p>Oh and PS: I said on the Duke thread to sell me Duke. I am undecided.</p>
<p>Also, Percyskivins, I go to a NE boarding school where 60% of the student body is openly atheist and only 5 people (out of 700 at the school) belong to Christian Fellowship.</p>
<p>Thank god for Alan Kors. And thank god Sheldon Hackney left (there is an annual "sheldon award" given to the most spineless university administrator, named in honor of Sheldon Hackney himself). More importantly, Hackney's departure paved the way for St. Rodin.</p>
<p>Mboyle - how d'ya know that the Yale website is not the one with the incorrect data? Anyway, the NYTimes chart is based on a fairly small group (3000 seniors) and the national numbers could probably vary by 10 points or so . Whether the split is 60/40 or 49/51 is not that big a deal - a swing of 4 or 5 people in a survey sample would move the stat. It's not like a million people get into both. </p>
<p>Likewise, there's no question that Duke loses applicants to Penn and vice versa and the actual split might be 66/34 Penn/Duke or it might be a little more even.My gut is that Penn would win more than 1/2 the time, but this still means that Duke gets 3 or 4 out of every 10 double admits - if they got 5 would the world be any different? In the end, for those lucky enough to get into such a 2-way, the important thing is which is the school that is right for YOU, not some number on a chart. Even if the split was 90/10 statistically, some people who would thrive at Duke would be miserable at Penn (and vice versa) - it's all about the fit for YOU and not just numbers.</p>
<p>If you are already in a NE boarding school you probably have a pretty good sense of what Penn would be like in terms of people, average level of religious belief, etc. The only difference is that because Penn is so much bigger, instead of 5 people in your group you'd have 50 or 100, enough to form a real community.</p>