Duke Tied for 9th in Latest U.S. News & World Report Rankings

Duke University placed in a tie for 9th in the latest annual ranking from U.S. News & World Report magazine of national universities that offer doctoral degrees.

In 2009, Duke was ranked 10th.

Tying Duke for 9th were the University of Chicago and Dartmouth College. Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities were the top three schools in the rankings.

U.S. News singled out Duke in four of eight categories that have "a strong focus on student success," which it described as "outstanding programs aimed at enriching the (student) experience." Duke was cited in the categories for study abroad, service learning, writing in the disciplines and undergraduate research/creative projects.

In addition, Duke was ranked ninth in a category called "great schools, great prices," for which the magazine compares a school's academic quality with the net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average level of need-based financial aid. "The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal," the magazine said.

In a new category, Duke finished tied for 11th in a ranking by high school guidance counselors of academic programs.

Duke's biomedical/biomedical engineering programs placed second in the rankings, and its undergraduate engineering program tied at No. 22 among doctoral universities, up from a tie for 26th last year.

Additional information about the U.S. News & World Report rankings is available at http://www.usnews.com/.