This year, 1,198 students applied early to Duke, committing to enroll if they received an offer of admission. That is a decline from 1,496 early decision applicants last year.

The university sent offers this week to 469 high school seniors from around the world for a spot in the Class of 2011.

A Duke official said the slide is probably partly attributable to months of negative news about the case in which three Duke lacrosse players were accused of raping a dancer from an escort service at a team party in March. The players have denied the charges.

"It would have surprised us if all of the media coverage hadn't had some effect," said Christoph Guttentag, dean of undergraduate admissions.

But he pointed out that early decision applications declined this year at other highly ranked schools, including Yale and Rice universities. That could indicate a trend against early decision, which has been the topic of media attention since Harvard, Princeton and the University of Virginia announced plans to drop the practice this year, Guttentag said. Early decision has been criticized because it tends to attract more affluent students.

"I don't think it's unreasonable to think that the critical view of early decision as a whole might have affected some people's decisions overall," he said.

Duke typically fills about 30 percent of each class during the early admissions process, but there is no specific target for the number of students to be picked early. Guttentag said the overall quality of the admitted students was the same as last year. "I'm very pleased with where we ended up," he said.

It remains to be seen whether the decrease in early applicants foreshadows trouble for Duke. The university's regular admissions deadline is Jan. 2, and the vast majority of students apply in December, Guttentag said.