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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Duke has no business being in the top 10, just look at their individual academic programs and make up your own mind.[/quote]

+1[/quote]

Which ones?  Most of the subject ratings are graduate program ratings, not undergraduate.

Duke has top 10 outcomes for undergraduates.[/quote]

+1 their mainstay is their undergrad program which is why it's a great place for college. They're also surrounded by many top 10 graduate programs which doesn't hurt either.[/quote]

Graduate school rankings are generally the best measure of academics for a department.  If a school does not rank well in a subject for graduate school, well that reflects on the quality of faculty and graduate students teaching undergraduate courses.  The graduate school rankings are directly linked to the undergraduate programs.[/quote]

It's great to have professors doing research (which is essentially what grad school rankings are all about) but for undergrads a much more relevant measure would be quality of undergrad teaching. You could have brilliant researcher not put much effort into teaching undergrads, which doesn't strengthen the undergrads at all.[/quote]

This argument just doesn't hold.  The idea that brilliant researchers are at odds with undergraduate teaching just isn't true.  If you want to master a subject, it is better to learn from the top minds in your field. Every department measures undergraduate teaching and provides faculty feedback.  The top departments have more faculty and graduate students that offer subject matter expertise and resources to provide better undergraduate courses.[/quote]

What are at odds are focus and time.  At a high level, a faculty member can devote time to 1) Research 2) Graduate Student Education 3) Undergraduate Education.  The schools that are more research and graduate driven devote more time obviously to 1 and 2 to the detriment of 3.  But it is worse than that.  Schools have to come up with some part of overall research expenditure from institutional resources (20% or more).  Although university finances are typically murky, it is a solid bet that some part of that is (unknowingly) paid for by undergraduates through tuition and fees.[/quote]

Top faculty with expertise in their field to offer to undergraduate courses also all do research.  If you want faculty that do not conduct research, that is more comparable to highly educated high school teachers.[/quote]

Top researchers are great but there’s a term for professors focused on teaching: “professors of practice.” I think schools with a good balance of both are great for undergrads. I believe schools like duke and Dartmouth have a good balance of those.[/quote]

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