Basic Information
Type
Private
Geographical Reach
National
Location
Durham, NC
Population
1,100,000
Website
http://www.duke.edu
Weather
Comfortable Days
115 (84%)
Sunshine Hours
2,680 (63%)
Days Without Precipitation
256 (70%)
Demographics
Total Undergraduates
6,639
Men / Women
46% / 54%
From State
16%
From Region
12%
Athletes
13.7%
Racial/Ethnic
White
34%
Asian
21%
International
12%
Hispanic
11%
Black
9%
Mixed
7%
Native American
0%
Men in the Entering Class
Men
Entering Class by Race & Ethnicity
Native
Asian
Black
Hispanic
White
International
Share of the full-time first-time degree-seeking cohort. Groups IPEDS reports separately — two or more races, and race unknown — are left out, so the lines don't sum to 100%.
Enrolled Undergraduates by Race & Ethnicity
Native
Asian
Black
Hispanic
White
International
Share of all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates, not just the entering class. Same excluded groups as above.
IPEDS Admissions (2011–2024), Graduation Rates (2011–2024) and 12-month Enrollment (2020–2025) surveys. Years a college didn't file leave a gap in the line.
Schools & Majors
| ⇅ | Trends | Degrees | Male/Female | Intl | Earnings | ROI | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pratt School of Engineering | 338 | 62% / 38% | 11% | $139,935 | 99 | 96% | |
| Biomedical Engineering | 92 +2 | 47% / 53% | 11% | $118,253 | 97 | 95% | |
| Civil Engineering | 14 — | 50% / 50% | 0% | $103,554 | 91 | — | |
| Electrical & Computer Engineering | 106 +8 | 77% / 23% | 12% | $179,140 | 100 | 98% | |
| Environmental Engineering | 7 — | 0% / 100% | 14% | $107,198 | 93 | — | |
| Interdisciplinary Engineering & Applied Science (IDEAS) | 5 — | 20% / 80% | 40% | $120,217 | 98 | — | |
| Mechanical Engineering | 114 +1 | 67% / 33% | 9% | $128,324 | 99 | 94% |
| ⇅ | Trends | Degrees | Male/Female | Intl | Earnings | ROI | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School of Nursing | 138 | 12% / 88% | 1% | $85,138 | 75 | 97% | |
| Nursing | 138 — | 12% / 88% | 1% | $85,138 | 75 | 97% |
| ⇅ | Trends | Degrees | Male/Female | Intl | Earnings | ROI | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trinity College of Arts and Sciences | 1,782 | 41% / 59% | 22% | $113,134 | 96 | 94% | |
| Computational Science | 1 — | 100% / 0% | 0% | $190,411 | 100 | — | |
| Computer Science | 238 +155 | 61% / 39% | 15% | $207,237 | 100 | 99% | |
| Computer Software and Media Applications | 6 — | 17% / 83% | 17% | $187,579 | 100 | — | |
| Mathematics and Computer Science | 10 — | 90% / 10% | 10% | $190,434 | 100 | — | |
| Chemistry | 25 +6 | 52% / 48% | 0% | $44,125 | 2 | 95% | |
| Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences | 8 +4 | 0% / 100% | 12% | $66,434 | 31 | — | |
| Mathematics | 39 +37 | 72% / 28% | 13% | $134,343 | 99 | 93% | |
| Physics | 11 +7 | 55% / 45% | 18% | $97,812 | 88 | — | |
| Statistics | 45 +23 | 47% / 53% | 11% | $124,260 | 98 | 96% | |
| Anatomy | 19 +6 | 5% / 95% | 11% | $89,074 | 80 | 93% | |
| Biological and Physical Sciences | 2 — | 50% / 50% | 0% | $79,566 | 66 | — | |
| Biology | 156 +17 | 33% / 67% | 4% | $72,536 | 49 | 95% | |
| Biophysics | 1 — | 100% / 0% | 0% | $77,236 | 61 | — | |
| Neuroscience | 83 +3 | 19% / 81% | 7% | $75,829 | 58 | 83% | |
| Environmental Studies | 31 +6 | 23% / 77% | 13% | $79,833 | 66 | 97% | |
| Marine Biology and Biological Oceanography | 5 +1 | 20% / 80% | 20% | $55,846 | 8 | — | |
| Natural Sciences | 1 — | 100% / 0% | 0% | $68,935 | 39 | — | |
| Economics | 190 +23 | 63% / 37% | 13% | $176,442 | 100 | 95% | |
| Economics | — — | — | — | $176,442 | 100 | 95% | |
| Economics and Computer Science | 2 — | 100% / 0% | 50% | — | — | — | |
| African Studies | 7 +3 | 43% / 57% | 0% | $67,132 | 33 | — | |
| Anthropology | 8 +3 | 12% / 88% | 0% | $64,104 | 24 | 89% | |
| Area Studies | 20 — | 20% / 80% | 5% | $67,718 | 35 | — | |
| Behavioral Sciences | 4 — | 50% / 50% | 50% | $67,030 | 33 | — | |
| Classical Languages | 1 +4 | 0% / 100% | 0% | $75,988 | 58 | — | |
| Cognitive Science | 1 — | 0% / 100% | 0% | $91,567 | 83 | — | |
| English | 11 +8 | 27% / 73% | 9% | $80,103 | 67 | 92% | |
| Ethnic and Cultural Studies | — — | — | — | $66,066 | 30 | — | |
| Foreign Languages | 1 +8 | 100% / 0% | 0% | $96,550 | 87 | 93% | |
| French | 2 +9 | 0% / 100% | 0% | $71,175 | 45 | — | |
| General Literature | 2 +7 | 50% / 50% | 0% | $77,006 | 60 | — | |
| German | — +1 | — | — | $73,974 | 53 | — | |
| History | 2 +6 | 50% / 50% | 0% | $88,172 | 79 | 91% | |
| History | 23 +5 | 57% / 43% | 0% | $88,172 | 79 | 91% | |
| Interdisciplinary Studies | 23 — | 26% / 74% | 4% | $89,189 | 80 | — | |
| Interdisciplinary Studies | 339 — | 40% / 60% | 80% | $89,454 | 81 | — | |
| Italian | — +5 | — | — | $71,175 | 45 | 100% | |
| Linguistics | 2 +3 | 0% / 100% | 0% | $96,550 | 87 | 93% | |
| Philosophy | 7 +7 | 43% / 57% | 14% | $69,412 | 40 | — | |
| Philosophy | 1 — | 0% / 100% | 0% | — | — | — | |
| Political Science | 81 +12 | 60% / 40% | 5% | $104,260 | 92 | 97% | |
| Psychology | 133 +11 | 20% / 80% | 7% | $58,740 | 12 | 91% | |
| Public Policy Studies | 151 +21 | 26% / 74% | 1% | $116,508 | 97 | 95% | |
| Religion/Religious Studies | 3 +2 | 33% / 67% | 33% | $49,237 | 3 | 94% | |
| Romance Languages | — +1 | — | — | $71,175 | 45 | — | |
| Russian | 2 +4 | 100% / 0% | 0% | $75,776 | 57 | — | |
| Sociology | 36 +7 | 31% / 69% | 6% | $76,964 | 60 | 88% | |
| Spanish | 2 +2 | 0% / 100% | 0% | $71,175 | 45 | — | |
| Women's Studies | 1 +1 | 0% / 100% | 0% | $64,946 | 27 | — | |
| International and Comparative Education | 21 +12 | 24% / 76% | 5% | $68,461 | 37 | 83% | |
| Art History, Criticism and Conservation | 7 +2 | 0% / 100% | 14% | $59,275 | 13 | — | |
| Dance | — +2 | — | — | $51,876 | 5 | — | |
| Music | 2 +2 | 0% / 100% | 50% | $57,654 | 11 | — | |
| Theater | 2 +6 | 0% / 100% | 0% | $54,815 | 7 | — | |
| Visual and Performing Arts | 14 +3 | 36% / 64% | 14% | $56,150 | 9 | — | |
| Visual and Performing Arts | — +3 | — | — | $51,405 | 5 | — |
Financial
Tuition & Fees
$76,012
ROI Percentile
97th
Retention & Graduation
Full-Time Retention
98%
4-Year Graduation Rate
87%
6-Year Graduation Rate
97%
Transfer-Out Rate
1%
Six-Year Graduation Rate
Graduated
Students finishing within 150% of normal time. Each year labels the cohort that entered six years earlier — 2024 tracks the class that started in 2018.
Six-Year Graduation Rate by Gender
Men
Women
IPEDS reports the cohort as men and women only.
Six-Year Graduation Rate by Race & Ethnicity
Asian
Black
Hispanic
White
International
Each group's completers over its own share of the entering cohort. Groups making up less than 2% of everyone this college graduated over the period are left off — their rates swing on a handful of students and read as noise.
IPEDS Graduation Rates survey, 2011–2024. Years a college didn't file leave a gap in the line.
Earnings by Major Category
Each major category's degree-weighted estimated median 5-year earnings at this college, expressed as a z-score against the national degree-weighted distribution for that category. 0 is the national average. The shaded band between +1.28 and −1.28 marks the central 80% of the national distribution (10th–90th percentile).
Academics
| ⇅ | % | Degrees | Male/Female | Intl | Earnings | ROI | Employment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38.2% | 863 | 35% / 65% | 34% | $88,670 | 80 | 93% | ||
| Engineering | 15.0% | 338 | 62% / 38% | 11% | $139,936 | 99 | 96% | |
| Life & Natural Sciences | 11.6% | 261 | 27% / 73% | 5% | $74,859 | 55 | 91% | |
| Computer Science | 11.3% | 255 | 62% / 38% | 15% | $206,050 | 100 | 99% | |
| Business & Economics | 8.5% | 192 | 64% / 36% | 13% | $176,442 | 100 | 95% | |
| Health Sciences | 6.1% | 138 | 12% / 88% | 1% | $85,138 | 75 | 97% | |
| Physical Sciences & Math | 5.7% | 128 | 53% / 47% | 10% | $105,794 | 93 | 95% | |
| Agriculture & Food Science | 1.6% | 37 | 24% / 76% | 14% | $76,297 | 59 | 97% | |
| Arts | 1.1% | 25 | 20% / 80% | 16% | $57,039 | 10 | — | |
| Education | 0.9% | 21 | 24% / 76% | 5% | $68,461 | 37 | 83% |
Research R1
| ⇅ | Research $ | Rank | Federal | Industry $ | PhDs | Rank | PhD students | Postdocs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health Sciences | $962M | #4 | 58% | $206M | 7 | #161 | 64 | 145 |
| Life & Natural Sciences | $347M | #12 | 85% | $8.4M | 112 | #11 | 631 | 261 |
| Engineering | $119M | #45 | 77% | $2.3M | 109 | #32 | 671 | 97 |
| $58.0M | #30 | 56% | $1.9M | 86 | #52 | 201 | 56 | |
| Physical Sciences & Math | $54.5M | #64 | 78% | $1.3M | 54 | #61 | 443 | 110 |
| Computer Science | $14.3M | #66 | 92% | $0.3M | 14 | #71 | 103 | 7 |
| Business & Economics | $12.6M | #51 | 21% | $1.6M | 26 | #44 | 82 | — |
| Agriculture & Food Science | $9.8M | #75 | 64% | $0.1M | 9 | #56 | 56 | 7 |
| Education | $0.3M | #325 | 28% | $0 | — | — | — | — |
| Total | $1,579M | #11 | 66% | $222M | 417 | #50 | 2,251 | 683 |
Expenditure and funding source: NSF HERD, FY2024. Degrees: IPEDS completions, 2023–24. Students and postdocs: NSF Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates, fall 2024, which covers science, engineering and selected health fields only. An em dash means the source does not report the figure, which is not the same as zero.
Admissions
Uses Common App
Yes
Acceptance Rate
5%
Yield (Unbound)
44%
Early Decision 1
Nov 1
Regular Decision
Jan 3
Acceptance Rates
| In-State | Out-of-State | International | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Decision | 4% | 4% | 4% |
| Early Decision | 14% | 14% | 14% |
Acceptance & Yield
Acceptance
Yield
Applicants, Admitted & Enrolled
Applicants
Admitted
Enrolled
IPEDS Admissions survey, 2011–2024. Years a college didn't file leave a gap in the line.
Standardized Tests
Test Policy
optional
Submitted Test Scores
75%
SAT Range
1510
–
1570
SAT Math Range
770
–
790
SAT RW Range
740
–
780
SAT Composite
25th
75th
SAT Math
25th
75th
SAT Reading & Writing
25th
75th
Submitting a Test Score
Submitted
IPEDS Admissions survey, 2011–2024. Years a college didn't file leave a gap in the line. Test-score submission adds SAT and ACT submitters, capped at 100% — a student can send both.
Rankings
Academics
Future Patagonia Vest Owners
Top Investment Banking Feeders
Settling for Evercore
Future Ambulance Chasers
Top Law School Feeders
Future SCOTUS Clerks
Future Adjunct Professors
Top PhD Feeders
TA Before You Can Say "Publish or Perish"
Prestige
Grandma Eyebrow Raisers
Easy Brags for the Prestigious-Conscious
Moving to a Warmer Climate
My Tribe
Call Your Mother!
Most Jewish
Significant Community
Engineering
Pre-Med Hidding in Plain Sight
Biomedical Engineering
The Pioneers
Playing House
Civil Engineering
The Deep Bench
Resistance Is Futile
Computer Engineering
O(1) Touch Grass (Theoretically Computable)
Resistance Is Not Futile
Electrical Engineering
Ohm My God
Hugging Trees with Calculus
Environmental Engineering
Pollution Police
Is It a Solid? Is It a Liquid? Yes.
Materials Engineering
Solid State
WD-40 & Duct Tape
Mechanical Engineering & Robotics
Whiteboard-preferred
Computer Science
Explaining That HTML is Not a Programming Language
Computer Science (A&S)
LeetCode Grinders
import pandas as pd
Data Science
The Prestige Pivoters
Physical Sciences & Math
Quants, Proofs & p < 0.05
Applied Mathematics & Statistics
Wall Street's Favorite Feeder Schools
Breaking Bad
Chemistry
Pre-Med Darwinian Thunderdome
Rocks and Whales
Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Sedimentary Scholars
The "I Understand Interstellar" Elite
Physics & Astronomy
Biophysics, Soft Matter, and Interdisciplinary Physics
No Words Allowed
Pure Mathematics
Equation Elegance
Life & Natural Sciences
Pre-Med Reject Waiting Room
Biology
Lab Gods
Photosynthesis Fan Club
Ecology & Plant Biology
Botanical Brigade
Memorizing 206 Bones
Human Biology
The Cadaver Club
Lord of the Petri Dish
Microbiology & Immunology
Pathogen Punishers
Staring at a Gel Electrophoresis Until Our Eyes Bleed
Molecular Biology & Genomics
Sequencing Squad
Action Potentials
Neuroscience
Rat Maze Architects
Agriculture & Food Science
Doomsday Prepping with Data
Environmental Science
Climate Warriors
Farmers, Cowboys, and Tree Huggers
Plant & Agricultural Systems
Harvest Season
Health Sciences
Future Heroes (With 12-Hour Shifts)
Nursing
Florence Nightingale's Heirs
Legal Drug Dealers
Pharmacy
Dosage Masters
Business & Economics
PowerPoint Presentation Power Rankings
Business Administration
We Don't Actually Offer Undergrad Business
Pivot Tables & Missing Pallets
Business Analytics
Dashboard Dictators
It's Basic Supply and Demand, Bro
Economics
Math Masochists & Stata Sorcerers
Move Fast, Break Tuition
Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Startup Scene
Wolf of Wall Street Prep
Finance
Wait, I Majored in Econ?
Tik-Tok Generation
Marketing
Getting There
Humanities & Social Sciences
I Think, Therefore I Major
Cognitive Science
The Academic Anarchists
Much Ado About Nothing
English, Literature & Writing
Ink & Quill
Saving the Planet, One Policy at a Time
Environmental Policy & Sustainability
Climate Cabinet
Smashing the Patriarchy 101
Gender Studies
Discourse Disruptors
Model UN Generation
Government & Politics
Policy Wonks
Hindsight is 20/20 (And So is My Salary)
History & Archaeology
Primary Source Hunters
Passport Stamp Collectors
International Relations
Foreign Service Bound
I'll Figure Out the Career Later
Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary
Major Mashup
The "Why Are We Here?" Support Group
Philosophy & Ethics
Late Night Debaters
Feelings, But With Error Bars
Research & Experimental Psychology
The Power-Analysis Cartel
I Want To Understand Myself
Psychology
Uncommitted Generalists
Decolonizing the Curriculum
Regional & Ethnic Studies
Cultural Cartographers
Arguing with God for a Grade
Religion
The Faithful Scholars
Everything is a Construct
Sociology & Anthropology
The Deconstructors
Education
Surviving PTA Karens
General Education
Classroom Ready
Arts
Lights, Camera, Tuition
Film
Indie Darlings
Professional
Future Lawyers (and Their Future Anxiety)
Law
Mock Trial Champs