I was under the impression that it's the opposite and checking Duke's graph on LSN, that does appear to be the case. Duke doesn't go for low GPAs like we see Georgetown, Cornell, Northwestern, UVA, etc. doing.sinfiery wrote:And NU has a very low GPA floor relative to the T14 so they get a lot of love for that. + Outperforming (less this year) their rank in the NLJ
I think Duke's previous lack of attention on TLS was due to the following, though this isn't news:
1) Very splitter unfriendly, as already mentioned
2) Location (In the south, not near any of the major markets)
3) Ranked #11, just outside of the top 10. I think this is an important one. Lots of people want the glory of saying they go to a Top 10 school. I've been seeing this stupid T10 distinction recently. You go to Michigan or Berkeley over Duke or Northwestern? No one cares anymore.
As someone who has been lurking TLS since 2010, I would wager that this shift in sentiment (or really the creation of any kind of sentiment towards Duke) has been changed this cycle, because TLS is more radical than ever this cycle. When I first came to TLS, Vandy was touted as a decent option. WUSTL was also considered better than it currently is. Sure it was shit on occasionally to frequently, but now no one is even making the argument that those schools are kind of sort of national anymore. Michigan used to get A LOT more love. And now it's "Michigone" because when you take a look at it's employment stats for the past 5 years, it is seriously under-performing. Posters used to tell people to ED to schools. No one gives that advice anymore, because it's far more common to say that no school below HYS is worth sticker.
On this field, Duke becomes a much more attractive option. It has great employment statistics and is a very consistent performer. It has deep pockets scholly-wise and a low cost of living. Since scholarship money, cost of living and employment stats are the most important considerations for TLS-ers these days and considering the fact that Duke does place nationally, Duke is very often the credited response in the eyes of TLS-ers.
