Duke cares about its US News ranking. A lot.

[cspan37421]

Maybe we could just get a bigger hill and put a chapel on that.

First we'd have to get rid of all the sheep. Maybe if Borat came by to sing In My County There is Problem (Throw the Ewe Down the Well).

[Duvall]

If one were less cynical, one might say practical thinkers, instead.

No, I think cynical is the right word. Duke's reputation is probably strong enough at this point to tell U.S. News to go pound sand, but the silly rankings have historically been good for the school. I imagine they'll continue to play along.

[Jim3k]

USN&WR rankings are nothing compared to those of the Princeton Review.

I mean, after all, wouldn't you like to be a Syracuse undergraduate, the college which Princeton Review ranks as the Number 1 PARTY SCHOOL? (Welcome to the ACC 'Cuse attendees; can't use the terms grads, becuz...well, becuz.)

The PR has 62 categories which it ranks. And, no, I didn't try to peruse any beyond the party school category. But if you want, here is the PR webpage which leads to them. Peruse away!

[Wander]

Like Lord Varys says, power resides where people believe it resides. And, rightly or wrongly, enough people believe it resides with these rankings. I don't fault Duke for advertising our high position. Obviously, there exist things so morally repugnant that you don't do them even if they are to your practical benefit, but this doesn't fall in that category for me.

[throatybeard]

As faculty at UMSL, I'm pretty sure we're the last-ranked party school in the nation. But we're top ranked in, "I'm 31 and my 5yo kid has a GI problem and I have to miss class to take him to the doctor." I'm sure this is BS 6% of the time, but I let those skate because of the other 94%.

You guys in this thread are funny.

[hurleyfor3]

As faculty at UMSL, I'm pretty sure we're the last-ranked party school in the nation.

Caltech? BYU? Yeshiva? The US Naval Academy?

You guys in this thread are funny.

There's Duke hate, but we hate on ourselves!

[throatybeard]

Caltech? BYU? Yeshiva? The US Naval Academy?

Liberty? Oral Roberts?

Actually, I think all those repressed places have a lot of freaky stuff going on in secret. I dated a girl from Liberty, and I'm not really going to finish that sentence.

Places like us? We have single moms who are trying to get their MAT, being spit up on by their kid in Schnucks. They're 1000 miles past when their 1995 Corolla should have had an oil change. Nobody is partying.

[johnb]

As faculty at UMSL, I'm pretty sure we're the last-ranked party school in the nation. But we're top ranked in, "I'm 31 and my 5yo kid has a GI problem and I have to miss class to take him to the doctor." I'm sure this is BS 6% of the time, but I let those skate because of the other 94%.

You guys in this thread are funny.

Universities have different missions, and I don't think the DBR audience disparages the effort to teach the struggling adult who is busily raising a child as a single parent while accruing crippling debt.

Such an effort is not Duke's mission, for better or worse. Duke's got multiple goals, including teaching educationally privileged 20 yr olds, but one goal is to reside comfortably in the top 10 in US News, which definitely helps us get students, definitely helps us raise money, and probably helps us recruit faculty. As was mentioned, the administration can't believe these rankings are especially valid, but they do know that a high ranking has concrete benefits. Should the whole campus live and breath by rankings? Of course not. But if no one on campus paid attention to such things, the overall university would, IMHO, be making a mistake.

[throatybeard]

Universities have different missions, and I don't think the DBR audience disparages the effort to teach the struggling adult who is busily raising a child as a single parent while accruing crippling debt.

I think if you've read most of the things the "DBR audience" says about other universities, much of the DBR audience disparages everyone ranked lower than Duke.

Some of the DBR audience doesn't, thank goodness. And I think I know whose these people are, since I've been reading this site for close to two decades.

But I've read stuff on this board about how R1s such as Carolina, State, VT, FSU, Clemson and even Vandy (!) are just terrible schools, supposedly. My school is more or less the MO equivalent of UNC-Charlotte. I'd hate to know where we fit in if Carolina is a terrible school. Heck, I'd hate to know where Arizona or Nebraska-Lincoln fit in if Carolina is a terrible school.

[YmoBeThere]

CThe US Naval Academy?

If the Annapolis grads are anything like the West Point grads I knew, they get their work done on vacation and take care of the rest when they hit Officer Basic Course or whatever the Navy equivalent. But many of the West Pointers I knew paled in comparison to a certain segment of the international students I knew in business school.

[Jim3k]

I think if you've read most of the things the "DBR audience" says about other universities, much of the DBR audience disparages everyone ranked lower than Duke.

Some of the DBR audience doesn't, thank goodness. And I think I know whose these people are, since I've been reading this site for close to two decades.

But I've read stuff on this board about how R1s such as Carolina, State, VT, FSU, Clemson and even Vandy (!) are just terrible schools, supposedly. My school is more or less the MO equivalent of UNC-Charlotte. I'd hate to know where we fit in if Carolina is a terrible school. Heck, I'd hate to know where Arizona or Nebraska-Lincoln fit in if Carolina is a terrible school.

I'm with you, Throaty, on educating the late-bloomers. My three children, now in their thirties, each chose a different route. The eldest went to the University of California at Davis. The youngest went to Duke. And, the middle one finished last, starting with community college, then the college of hard knocks, community college again and then a degree from a directional school, Cal State East Bay (formerly Hayward). The Hayward experience was fascinating, given the mixture of races and ages, the maturation of do-overs like him, the number of single moms, and the percentage of regular four-year types right out of high school. I think my son may have been the better for that experience, though it made me tear my hair out for a while until I understood he was succeeding in his own way.

Of those three, who's got the better education? You tell me. As I observed once before, you taught one. I'm betting you will say my 10-year plan son.

What I know for sure is, if I had to support a college-age child now, I couldn't afford a private school like Duke--as much as I love the place.

[Mike Corey]

I dated a girl from Liberty, and I'm not really going to finish that sentence.

You can't yada yada the best part...

[OldPhiKap]

You can't yada yada the best part...

Did he mention the bisque?

[Wander]

You can't yada yada the best part...

My new favorite twitter account: https://twitter.com/SeinfeldToday

[throatybeard]

Bisque is hard to come by in Lynchburg.

What I know for sure is, if I had to support a college-age child now, I couldn't afford a private school like Duke--as much as I love the place.

QFT.

My son is almost five. I think he'll be a freshman in AY2028-09, but I'm not sure because I can't count that high. By that time, I expect the comprehensive fee at Duke will be in the neighborhood of $85K/year. So you're looking at about $340K. That simply isn't happening unless we put sell him to Paris Hilton for about $300K. His butt is going to Mizzou or Truman State or somewhere like that. I'm sure half the people on this board will think I'm an awful parent, but Duke doesn't give nearly as much financial aid as a bunch of the schools it views as peers. We are also, I suspect, right in the financial sweet spot where you make too much money to receive much financial aid, but you don't make nearly enough that you can fork over the equivalent of a well-outfitted Benz every year for an entire Olympiad. We managed to do one thing right, which is the note on this house is a 15-year, meaning we will cease to have a mortgage almost exactly when he goes to college. (I'm making the shaky assumption that the Missouri legislature won't have fired all the teachers and confiscated their pensions, yet, meaning his parents will still have jobs and a house to live in).

I also don't want my kid going to Duke because Carolina. The culture of the rivalry is absolutely sick. I want to limit his lifetime exposure to their mean, nasty fans. After my parents are gone, I can't imagine we'll have much reason to come to North Carolina. We can fly my sister out here, and it's not the only state with mountains and beaches. Can you get Diet Cheerwine shipped out of state?

Frankly--I'm not going to tell him what to do--he can decide for himself within our financial limits, but I really hope he chooses somewhere that doesn't have big-time sports, which I no longer consider much of an asset to a higher ed institution. (This is why I'm rooting for Truman, which is Missouri's best public liberal arts school). Even if he goes to Mizzou, I don't think fifteen years will have done much to stoke animus towards MU on the parts of the SEC schools, which will probably still view MU as a Midwestern outlier that they're still not sure why it's in their conference. I'm perfectly happy to have a Midwestern son raised by expatriate Southerners.

[rasputin]

Bisque is hard to come by in Lynchburg.



QFT.

My son is almost five. I think he'll be a freshman in AY2028-09, but I'm not sure because I can't count that high. By that time, I expect the comprehensive fee at Duke will be in the neighborhood of $85K/year. So you're looking at about $340K. That simply isn't happening unless we put sell him to Paris Hilton for about $300K. His butt is going to Mizzou or Truman State or somewhere like that. I'm sure half the people on this board will think I'm an awful parent, but Duke doesn't give nearly as much financial aid as a bunch of the schools it views as peers. We are also, I suspect, right in the financial sweet spot where you make too much money to receive much financial aid, but you don't make nearly enough that you can fork over the equivalent of a well-outfitted Benz every year for an entire Olympiad. We managed to do one thing right, which is the note on this house is a 15-year, meaning we will cease to have a mortgage almost exactly when he goes to college. (I'm making the shaky assumption that the Missouri legislature won't have fired all the teachers and confiscated their pensions, yet, meaning his parents will still have jobs and a house to live in).

I also don't want my kid going to Duke because Carolina. The culture of the rivalry is absolutely sick. I want to limit his lifetime exposure to their mean, nasty fans. After my parents are gone, I can't imagine we'll have much reason to come to North Carolina. We can fly my sister out here, and it's not the only state with mountains and beaches. Can you get Diet Cheerwine shipped out of state?

Frankly--I'm not going to tell him what to do--he can decide for himself within our financial limits, but I really hope he chooses somewhere that doesn't have big-time sports, which I no longer consider much of an asset to a higher ed institution. (This is why I'm rooting for Truman, which is Missouri's best public liberal arts school). Even if he goes to Mizzou, I don't think fifteen years will have done much to stoke animus towards MU on the parts of the SEC schools, which will probably still view MU as a Midwestern outlier that they're still not sure why it's in their conference. I'm perfectly happy to have a Midwestern son raised by expatriate Southerners.

Hey Throaty, I have to put in a plug for my alma mater, Southeast Missouri State. It was, and I'm sure it still is, a great value, and I loved it there. I'm convinced that coming from SEMO actually helped me get in to law school at Duke.

[throatybeard]

Hey Throaty, I have to put in a plug for my alma mater, Southeast Missouri State. It was, and I'm sure it still is, a great value, and I loved it there. I'm convinced that coming from SEMO actually helped me get in to law school at Duke.

I do hear good things about SEMO. I know a really smart (India) Indian kid (no, I don't know why I'm mentioning ethnicity) who went there. He speaks highly of it. Surprisingly diverse student body for a school located in CapeG.

[Reisen]

My uncle was a professor at Southeast Missouri State. I had never heard of it before he took the position, and this might be the first time sense. He's back at UGA currently.

While I'm raising my kids as Blue Devil fans, I won't encourage either of them to go to Duke (despite both my wife and I being alumni). I view the UM, UVA, UNC tier as pretty compelling, and there are also smaller liberal arts colleges like Middlebury that I think give great educations.

[rasputin]

I do hear good things about SEMO. I know a really smart (India) Indian kid (no, I don't know why I'm mentioning ethnicity) who went there. He speaks highly of it. Surprisingly diverse student body for a school located in CapeG.

When I was there, there were a fair number of Iranians. (This, of course, is before it hit the fan.) Some of the guys I hung around with/played music with were from Panama.

[throatybeard]

When I was there, there were a fair number of Iranians. (This, of course, is before it hit the fan.) Some of the guys I hung around with/played music with were from Panama.

This kid could be Persian. I feel like the worst liberal ever. I may just drink a lot of gin and walk up and ask him. Hope he doesn't think I'm hitting on him.

He's not Panamanian. Of that I'm sure. His cut fastball isn't good enough.

(Too soon?)