Duke University Overview

Duke University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Durham, North Carolina. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

What Is Duke University Known For?

• Students who want to work more closely with their professors have an easier time at Duke since the student to facuty ratio is 6 to 1.
• The student loan default rate at Duke is 1%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• The highest award offered at Duke is the doctor's degree.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 94% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, Duke bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $84,400 a year. That's about 107% more than their peers at other schools.
• It takes the average Duke student 4.1 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Duke University Rankings

According to our 2022 analysis, Duke is ranked #10 out of 2,587 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation! It is also ranked #1 out of 113 schools in North Carolina.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

Duke has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#7	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#11	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#22	Best Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#31	Best Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Duke.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#2	Best Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Public & Social Service Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best History Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Social Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#5	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#5	Best Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Best Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Best Computer & Information Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Duke has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#2	Best Social Sciences Schools	College Factual
#3	Best Visual & Performing Arts Schools	College Factual
#3	Best History Schools	College Factual
#4	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central
#4	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#4	Best Psychology Schools	College Factual

Where Is Duke University?

Contact details for Duke are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	103 Allen Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
Phone:	919-684-8111
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/DukeUniv
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/DukeU

How Do I Get Into Duke?

You can apply to Duke online at: admissions.duke.edu/application/instructions

Admission Requirements for Duke

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	recommended
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	recommended

How Hard Is It To Get Into Duke?

With an acceptance rate of 8%, Duke is one of the most selective schools in the country. If the admissions department requests additional materials, be sure to submit them promptly. This could be a sign that you're on the border line of being accepted or denied.

Approximately 51% of accepted students are men and 49% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 8%, and the acceptance rate for women is 8%.

Average Test Scores

About 60% of students accepted to Duke submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 720 and 770. Math scores were between 750 and 800.

Duke received ACT scores from 61% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 35 and 36. Math scores were between 32 and 35. Composite scores were between 34 and 35.

Can I Afford Duke University?

The overall average net price of Duke is $48,634. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Duke, approximately 22% of students took out student loans averaging $8,494 a year. That adds up to $33,976 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Duke is 0.9%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Duke University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 6,717 undergraduate students at Duke, with 6,572 being full-time and 145 being part-time.

There are also 9,455 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 6,572 full-time undergraduates at Duke, 49% are male and 51% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Duke University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1,397
Black or African American	576
Hispanic or Latino	669
White	2,661
International Students	527
Other Races/Ethnicities	742

Geographic Diversity

North Carolina students aren't the only ones who study at Duke University. At this time, 49 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 126 countries are represented at Duke. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and South Korea.

Online Learning at Duke University

In 2019-2020, 6,845 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Duke has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 48th most popular in North Carolina for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of Duke

The following table shows how Duke is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Natural Resources Conservation	#50	#50
Natural Resources & Conservation	#61	#61

Online Growth Rankings of Duke

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Duke University was 71.4%. This is the #523 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Duke regardless of major.

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Duke University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Business Administration & Management	0	0	750	22	772
Nursing	133	79	234	140	586
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	419	0	419
Computer Science	339	0	45	13	397
Economics	219	0	91	18	328
Public Policy	233	0	67	1	301
General Biology	165	0	49	4	218
Law	0	0	0	217	217
Biomedical Engineering	89	12	73	23	197
Natural Resources Conservation	44	0	136	3	183
Allied Health Professions	0	0	179	0	179
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	175	0	175
Political Science & Government	131	0	25	15	171
Theological & Ministerial Studies	0	0	140	27	167
Electrical Engineering	0	0	109	40	149
Mechanical Engineering	91	0	40	18	149
Legal Research	0	0	112	28	140
Child Development & Psychology	127	4	0	0	131
Computer Engineering	107	0	18	0	125
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	83	28	0	111
Medicine	0	0	0	100	100
International Business	0	0	91	0	91
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	78	0	0	12	90
Statistics	46	0	36	7	89
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	30	31	27	0	88
Public Health	47	6	32	0	85
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	0	0	0	78	78
Medical Illustration & Informatics	0	0	73	0	73
History	63	0	6	4	73
Mathematics	53	0	1	11	65
Chemistry	41	0	2	16	59
Sociology	45	0	7	7	59
International Relations & National Security	0	16	41	0	57
Area Studies	26	7	23	0	56
General English Literature	41	0	4	9	54
Civil Engineering	14	0	31	7	52
Physics	11	0	28	13	52
Religious Studies	6	0	32	3	41
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	0	1	30	6	37
Computational Science	0	0	36	0	36
International Education	35	0	0	0	35
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	35	0	0	0	35
Bioethics/Medical Ethics	0	4	29	0	33
General Psychology	2	0	16	11	29
Philosophy	23	1	0	4	28
Romance Languages	18	0	6	1	25
Other Visual Art	23	0	0	0	23
Genetics	0	0	3	16	19
Physiology & Pathology Sciences	0	0	17	2	19
Anthropology	12	2	2	3	19
Fine & Studio Arts	7	0	10	2	19
Music	8	0	7	4	19
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	2	1	1	13	17
Ethnic Studies	8	8	0	0	16
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	0	16	0	16
Natural Resource Management	0	0	16	0	16
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	0	0	2	10	12
Pharmacology & Toxicology	0	3	1	8	12
Geological & Earth Sciences	6	0	1	5	12
Literature	10	0	0	0	10
Entrepreneurial Studies	0	0	2	7	9
Germanic Languages	3	0	0	5	8
Materials Sciences	0	0	8	0	8
Theology & Religious Vocations (Other)	0	8	0	0	8
Environmental Control Technology	0	0	7	0	7
Interdisciplinary Studies	7	0	0	0	7
Other Science Technologies/Technicians	0	7	0	0	7
General Visual & Performing Arts	7	0	0	0	7
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	0	0	5	1	6
Ophthalmic & Optometric Support Services	0	6	0	0	6
Computer Information Systems	5	0	0	0	5
Classical Languages & Literature	3	0	0	2	5
Drama & Theater Arts	5	0	0	0	5
Microbiological Sciences & Immunology	0	0	2	2	4
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	4	0	0	4
Environmental Engineering	2	0	0	0	2
Slavic, Baltic & Albanian Languages	2	0	0	0	2
Public Relations & Advertising	1	0	0	0	1
Information Science	0	1	0	0	1
Materials Engineering	0	0	1	0	1
Cognitive Science	1	0	0	0	1
Mathematics & Computer Science	1	0	0	0	1
Medieval Studies	0	1	0	0	1
Forestry	0	0	1	0	1
Journalism	0	0	0	0	0
English Literature (Other)	0	0	0	0	0
Sustainability Science	0	0	0	0	0
Other Psychology	0	0	0	0	0
Religious Education	0	0	0	0	0
Dance	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	2,405	285	3,343	938	6,971

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Bjoertvedt under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.