<p>As far as academic quality is concerned, I think Duke is already at par with HYPSM. Maybe even better in some areas already. As far as prestige goes, witht he exception of Caltech, HYSPM are head-and-shoulders above all the rest, including Duke, in terms of undergraudate prestige. HYPSM(C) are in their own league, and are the only real peer schools to each other. In general, Duke’s peers are Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, JHU, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Berkeley and the like.</p>