<p>Well, if you ask me for my honest opinion, it’s this:</p>
<p>Duke has always been conscious of its US News ranking, and hence has always played the ‘rankings’ game. Other top schools, like Columbia and Chicago, haven’t done it as much in the past, but are figuring out that they can quickly ascend the rankings by making very slight adjustments to the way they report stats, just as Duke has for years.</p>
<p>It’s similar to how Penn is now tied with MIT, Stanford, and Caltech. If MIT and Stanford really wanted to beat Penn in the rankings, they wouldn’t have a problem doing so. They just think it’s not worth it, so they leave Penn alone and let them game the rankings with their 99% top-10 percentage. Even with Penn playing the rankings game, the chances of them moving past MIT and Stanford is fairly slim, even with the latter schools ignoring their rankings. With Columbia and Chicago actually trying now, I look for Penn to fade in the rankings just as Duke has, though. Duke may re-tie Chicago or Columbia next year, but after next year, I don’t see it getting back into the top 9 ever again.</p>
<p>Also, Duke doesn’t have the financial resources to compete with Chicago and Columbia, nor do they have the reputation. Just do a comparison of professors’ pay at these universities along with peer assessment, and you’ll see what I mean.</p>
<p>Average professor pay, 09-10:
Duke: $160.8k
Columbia: $188.6k
Chicago: $184.1k</p>