Duke University alumni sometimes refer to the Durham, N.C., school as the Harvard of the South. It’s not the magnet it used to be.

Student and parent doubts are showing up in the admissions office. Applicants to Duke’s freshman class fell 1.1%, the first drop in eight years. It was one of only two schools to sustain a decline among those ranked in the top 10 by U.S. News and World Report magazine. Ivy League colleges including Princeton University, meanwhile, had record applications.

Fresh scandal erupted this week with Duke’s disclosure that 34 students in its master’s of business administration program were disciplined for cheating. The school already was tainted by last year’s sexual assault accusations against three lacrosse players. Widespread news coverage reinforced an image of binge drinking, although ultimately all charges against the players were dropped.

“When we tell people our daughter is going to Duke, they say, ‘Keep her away from the lacrosse team,”‘ said Sheila Walden, mother of 17-year-old Brittne Walden, a senior at Jonesboro High School in Jonesboro, Ga., south of Atlanta. “Instead of getting congratulations, we hear about the lacrosse team. It’s a joke.”

Duke dropped off the top 10 “dream schools” list in surveys of both students and parents this year by Princeton Review Inc., which sells test-preparation services.

“Duke’s stellar reputation has been tarnished,” said Christopher Simpson, chief executive officer of SimpsonScarborough, an education marketing firm in Washington.

University officials say the school will weather the storm and they expect enrollment to rebound.

“Duke has continued to do what has made it a world-class university: enrolled wonderful students; supported talented and dedicated teachers; established new and vital programs; and conducted renowned research and patient care,” said John Burness, Duke’s senior vice president for public affairs and government relations.

A recent campus study documented a “culture of excess,” showing that Duke students spent more time binge drinking and less time studying than those enrolled at other schools. North Carolina law prohibits consumption of alcoholic beverages until age 21, yet 37 Duke freshmen were sent to the hospital last year for alcohol-related illnesses.

In the cheating scandal at the Fuqua School of Business, nine students face expulsion and 15 face a one-year suspension. The students, who weren’t identified, may appeal.

“Both of these incidents happening at an institution as prestigious as Duke is an extra blow,” said Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life The school’s image has slipped among some students, said Terry Griffin, director of college counseling at Montgomery Bell Academy, a boys’ day school in Nashville, Tenn..

“Kids get the whole work-hard, play-hard mentality, but academics have to come first,” said Mr. Griffin, a guidance counselor for 25 years.