<p>Just a few thoughts here. I am not sure why anybody in their right mind would want to bash Stanford at all. I have no connection to Stanford, and a strong connection to Duke, and have no issue at all with anyone who wants to identify Stanford as one of the top two or three Universities in the world. Stanford is a terrific place with boatloads of money, a great campus, and a great international reputation. In my view, the Duke story is as equally compelling, although different. If you run down the list of highly ranked schools, other than Cal Tech, all the other schools were established academic powerhouses in 1900. Stanford and Chicago, for example, were founding members of Association of American Universities that year, along with the Ivies (except Dartmouth) Michigan, Hopkins, and a few other places. Duke was little ol Trinity College in the backwater of Durham. Today, people actually debate the relative merits of Duke against schools hundreds of years older. Its the youthful energy and related rise that sets Duke apart. Rather than worrying about whether Duke is seven or five or ten, whatever that means, consider attending because it is a remarkable exciting place, in a growing region, that has rapidly become one of the leading institutions in the world.</p>
<p>Duke is a great great place on its own terms.</p>