Originally Posted by
duke09hms
Yeah A.B. Duke is definitely the most prestigious scholarship at Duke hands down.
Duke's need-based financial aid is awesome, something like if your family makes under $70,000 everything is paid for. If it's between 70k and 100k a year, you take out a few grand in loans per year. I think total, I paid 10k for my Duke degree, and this is coming from a middle-class family in Pennsylvania.
It is really too bad how these rankings are so influential. When admitted HS students are choosing between schools, a good part of their decision is due to the rankings. And also, these rankings are all international students have to go by, so they are then extremely important. When schools drop in the rankings, administrators talk about how inaccurate and imprecise they are, but when schools rise, administrators speak of how useful a metric they are. Unfortunately, Duke's administrators have been speaking about how inaccurate they are.
Yes, these rankings are inaccurate and imprecise, but that doesn't mean they aren't important. And because no one truly checks the validity of their reported numbers, Duke would be well-served to "massage" their reported numbers and put their best foot forward. Like Columbia, Penn, UChicago, and WashU have all done in recent years to inflate their rankings and by doing so, they've been able to get better students, which is really what it's all about.
1. The head of the USNWR rankings is a Penn alum. Penn was always in the teens 10-15 years ago before he got there. Now they're in the top 5 on a regular basis. This is truly an unprecedented rocketship rise in the rankings.
2. Penn and Columbia and many of the "lower-tier" Ivies accept over half their class early decision, allowing them to reject the vast majority of the regular decision pool, decreasing their overall acceptance rate and increasing their yield, thus making them appear more "competitive" and increasing their ranking. Duke fills about 30% of its class through ED - personally I don't believe this is the way to go.
3. WashU sends info mailings to thousands of HS students and counts every returned request to join the info mailing list as a complete application, thus making them appear more "competitive" and increasing their ranking. This is a dishonest method, and Duke shouldn't do this.
4. UChicago sent a team of representatives to the USNWR offices a few years ago to find out how to improve their ranking. They were barely top 15 a few years ago, now they're top 5. I think this is something Duke definitely could do and should do.
Just saying, you're only hurting yourself if you don't try to help your ranking.
Also, does anyone else think duke might be the victim of big-city bias - we're not in the NorthEast, California, or in a major metropolitan center (Chicago)?