On Friday nights as I recover from the week, I begin worrying about making entries in my blog. It feels like I am disappointing people if I do not have something new to say about the world of reputation that I live in. So here goes.

One of the more interesting articles I read this week was sent to me by a colleague Doug Parker. It is about the failing reputation of Duke University. The article in Bloomberg on May 2nd reported that Duke has seen a slippage in its freshman applicants. The decline of 1.1 percent is its first decline in eight years (a decline of 217 applicants from last year’s record of 19,387). Other Ivys had record applications which makes this dip even more dramatic. Princeton Review also dropped Duke from its list of top 10 dream schools. Big hit.

Several factors account for this decline in reputation among high school seniors (and probably their parents):

1. A new scandal where 34 MBA students were disciplined for cheating.
2. Last year’s sexual assault accusations against three lacrosse players (who were found innocent as they should have been).
3. A recent internal Duke study that found too much binge drinking and not enough time studying. The study found that 20 percent of Duke students studied at least 20 hours per week vs 29 hours per week at similar institutions. Plus 14% of students spend 11+ hours per week partying vs. 9% at comparable institutions.

No doubt that Duke’s reputation has been stained. Sounds like Duke is in need of a reputation doctor. Take two aspirin and get help for the next crop of applicants.

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