Has Vanderbilt moved ahead of Duke?

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07/09/2025 15:36

Subject: Has Vanderbilt moved ahead of Duke?

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Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vandy's great, but Duke is quite a bit ahead in both undergrad outcomes and strength of the main grad schools (med/law/business)

Eh. It's a marginal difference among the graduate schools. Vanderbilt Law is top 14. MBA is similar. And Vanderbilt Medical School is outstanding and usually a top 10 or 15 by whatever ranking people use these days. Duke ranks slightly higher, but not significantly in the professional graduate programs.

As for undergrad, things have changed over the past ten years or so. In the south, Vanderbilt has long been regarded as comparable to Duke. But nationally, Vanderbilt is definitely on the upswing and is getting great students. Most high performing 18 year olds find Nashville much more appealing than Durham. There isn't a significant difference in outcomes - even on Wall Street or consulting. They're both a tier below Harvard or Wharton, but both do fine. They're both great schools, but Vanderbilt seems to be more of an "it" school than Duke these days. Some it is just perception. Duke isn't really regarded as a fun school anymore. Meanwhile, social media was all over Vanderbilt students carrying the goalposts to the river after they beat Alabama in football. Don't underestimate how appealing that looks to prospective students.

Vanderbilt law is definitely not T14. You could make a case that it's T20, but it's not a top-tier and there's a huge difference in clerkship + BL outcomes between Duke and Vandy: https://www.reddit.com/r/lawschooladmissions/comments/1k5c29k/2024_big_lawfederal_clerkship_percentages_every/

Similar story for the med school, Vanderbilt is not a T10. Duke has stronger outcomes across the board, including in residency programs, but the gap is narrower than law (Duke is T5/10, Vandy is a solid T20). Duke has a similar edge in MBA outcomes, although MBA admissions across the board aren't as competitive.

For the 2nd part, I'm not sure how we can quantify how much of an "it place" a school is (I didn't go to Duke for undergrad, so can't speak to that), but Duke's march madness run this year was super big on social media. Regardless, we're talking about perceived academic reputation, and Duke is just a stronger school across the board when it comes to undergrad outcomes. In my industry, Duke is a target school with firms recruiting on-campus, while Vanderbilt is not; ditto for IB/MBB/PE and feeders to top med/law/B-schools. All this to say that Vanderbilt is a fantastic school in the T20, but Duke's outcomes are better.

Well, according to US News, Vanderbilt Law is tied with Georgetown Law at the T14 spot. But I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not as hyper aware of rankings and perceived prestige as those in the Big Law community. Regarding medical school, there isn't a uniform ranking because no one participates with that nonsense anymore, but whatever differences there are between Duke and Vanderbilt medical schools are miniscule. They are both outstanding. Pretty sure any prospective med student would be thrilled with either option.

Regarding the target school thing, so much of that feels antiquated. When an undergrad education costs $400,000, it changes things. So much talent is following merit and aid. The old parameters don't work anymore. Talent is all over the place now. And schools rise and fall depending on the quality of their students. Duke seems to be the back up for HYPSM rejects who are mostly interested in rankings. Whereas Vanderbilt is focused on students that really want to be there. It's a different dynamic.