After spending a year at number seven, Duke has returned to number eight in the annual U.S. News and World Report ranking of research universities.
Duke now finds itself in the same place it was two years ago, tied with the University of Pennsylvania for eighth place. Last year's move to seventh place saw Duke in its highest position since 2005, in a three-way tie with UPenn and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The list—among the most popular college rankings in the country—was released Tuesday at 12:00 am.
"As we have always said, the U.S. News ranking is one piece of information that has some benefit and is not completely without use, but it really is just an imperfect snapshot of a random set of factors," said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations.
Duke has held various positions in the top 10 for more than two decades. The methodology for the ranking has shifted over time, and changes last year included decreasing the weight of peer assessment scores and increasing the weight of graduation and retention rates. No changes were made to the ranking methodology this year.
Although Duke does not necessarily place much stock in the rankings and is not concerned by the drop from eight to seven, the University is still pleased to be ranked at the top, Schoenfeld said.
"It's much better to be in the top 10 than not in the top 10," he noted.
The top three positions remain the same as last year, occupied by Princeton, Harvard and Yale Universities, respectively. Columbia University remains in fourth place, but this year is joined by Stanford University and the University of Chicago in a three-way tie. MIT is in seventh, and the California Institute of Technology rounds out the top of list in 10th place.
Duke's undergraduate engineering program was tied for 18th in a separate ranking. The biomedical engineering program ranked second in the country.
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