Duke University

Introduction

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James Buchanan Duke established Duke University, at which time the institution changed its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke.

The university's campus spans over 8,600 acres (35 km2) on three contiguous campuses in Durham as well as a marine lab in Beaufort. Duke's main campus—designed largely by architect Julian Abele—incorporates Gothic architecture with the 210-foot (64 m) Duke Chapel at the campus' center and highest point of elevation. The first-year-populated East Campus contains Georgian-style architecture, while the main Gothic-style West Campus 1.5 miles away is adjacent to the Medical Center. Duke is also the 7th wealthiest private university in America with $11.4 billion in cash and investments in fiscal year 2014.

Duke's research expenditures in the 2013 fiscal year were $993 million, the eighth largest in the nation.  In 2014, Thomson Reuters named 32 Duke professors to its list of Highly Cited Researchers, making it fourth globally in terms of primary affiliations. Duke also ranks 5th among national universities to have produced Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholars.  9 Nobel laureates, 3 Turing Award winners and 25 Churchill scholars are also affiliated with the university. Duke's sports teams compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the basketball team is renowned for having won five NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships, the most recent in 2015.

Applying

When applying to Duke University, it's important to note the application deadline is January 2, and the early decision deadline is November 1. Scores for either the ACT or SAT test are due January 2. The application fee at Duke University is $85. It is most selective, with an acceptance rate of 11.4 percent.

School mission and unique qualities:

Duke University offers a unique and compelling combination of academic achievement, engagement with society, and athletic accomplishment at the highest levels. A private comprehensive teaching and research university, Duke traces its roots to 1838, officially becoming Duke University in 1924. In addition to liberal arts and engineering education at the undergraduate level, Duke offers graduate and professional study in arts and sciences, business, divinity, engineering, the environment, law, public policy, medicine, and nursing. At the same time, Duke is an intimate setting, with 6,800 undergraduates and an additional 6,000 graduate and professional students. Duke is a global university with students and faculty from nearly every country. We encourage students to go abroad to study, perform service and conduct research. About half of Duke's graduating class spends at least a semester in another country - one of the highest percentages of any of the nation's top private research universities. We offer instruction in 25 foreign languages. One of our most popular programs is DukeEngage, which supports undergraduates who want to pursue an immersive service experience in the U.S. or abroad. Duke is characterized by innovation, entrepreneurship, energy and ambition. Duke students have an unusually wide range of opportunities available to them and freedom in choosing the academic path that best meets their needs. Duke students are encouraged to make a difference, to experiment with ideas and organizations and they are challenged to become engaged with society's problems and solutions. Our students spend four years on one of the most beautiful campuses in America -- soaring Gothic buildings, modern teaching and research facilities, lush botanical gardens, and accessible athletics and recreational spaces. Duke's home of Durham is a historic tobacco and textile hub that has emerged as the heart of North Carolina's hi-tech Research Triangle, and is consistently recognized as one of the most desirable and vibrant places to live in the country. Durham's arts, culture, recreation and restaurants have earned a national following, and the region provides numerous opportunities for post-graduate employment. Duke students exhibit legendary passion and enthusiasm. Duke's athletic program is regularly ranked among the nation's strongest and most competitive, with some of the country's most talented scholar-athletes and dedicated fans: the Cameron Crazies. A member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Duke has thirteen men's varsity teams and thirteen women's varsity teams as well as numerous intramural, recreational, and club sports. Duke consistently leads the ACC in Academic Honor Roll students and is a top producer of Academic All Americans. The residential experience is an important component of a Duke education. About 85 percent of all undergraduates live on campus. First-year students live together on East Campus, where about a quarter of them participate in FOCUS, a living/learning program organized around academic themes, which gives them immediate access to faculty mentoring and a smaller community of students they get to know well. Duke is one of a small number of schools committed to a need-blind admission policy, which means we admit undergraduates without consideration of a family's ability to pay tuition and other college costs and meet 100 percent of a student's demonstrated financial need for four years. About 54 percent of our undergraduates receive some sort of financial assistance, including need-based aid, merit or athletic scholarships. With the rigorous academics, the plethora of social and artistic activities, the immersive service and cultural opportunities and the occasional basketball game in Cameron Indoor Stadium, the most important things students need to bring with them to Duke are energy and intellectual curiosity.

Admissions

Admission to Duke is highly selective; Duke received over 31,150 applications for the Class of 2019, and admitted 9.4% of applicants.  According to The Huffington Post, Duke was the tenth toughest university in the United States to get into based on admissions data from 2010.  The yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who choose to attend the university) is approximately 50%. For the class of 2015, 90% of enrolled students ranked in the top 10% of their high school classes; 97% ranked in the top quarter.  The middle 50% range of SAT scores for the prospective students accepted to Trinity College of Arts and Sciences in Fall 2014 is 680–790 for verbal/critical reading, 700–800 for math, and 700–790 for writing, while the ACT Composite range is 31–35 For those accepted to the Pratt School of Engineering, the middle 50% range for the SAT is 700-780 for verbal/critical reading, 760-800 for math, and 720-800 for writing, while the ACT Composite range is 33-35.  The average SAT score is 2240.

Athletics

Duke University teams are known as the Blue Devils. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) sub-level for football), primarily competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for all sports since the 1953-54 season.  Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, fencing, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, fencing, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and volleyball. Duke plans to add softball as its 27th varsity sport in spring 2018.

Duke's teams have won 16 NCAA team national championships—the women's golf team has won six (1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2014), the men's basketball team has won five (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, and 2015), the men's lacrosse team has won three (2010, 2013, and 2014), and the men's soccer (1986) and women's tennis (2009) teams have won one each.

Duke consistently ranks among the top in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Directors' Cup, an overall measure of an institution's athletic success. For Division I in 2013, Duke finished ninth overall and fifth in the ACC.

Duke has won 126 ACC Championships since claiming football, men's lacrosse and men's golf in the league's first year in 1953-54, including the Blue Devils ACC Championships in football and volleyball in 2013-14.

Since 1999-2000, Duke has captured 52 league crowns, second most in the ACC, and has won at least one ACC Championship each season since 1979-80 and at least two every season since 1990-91. Since hiring David Cutcliffe as head football coach in 2007, the Duke football program has become one of the strongest in the ACC. The Blue Devils won the ACC Coastal Division in 2013, but lost to No. 1-ranked Florida State in the conference championship game. Duke then played Texas A&M in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, losing 52-48 to the Aggies, who were led by Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.

The Blue Devil mascot's origins are rooted in an elite French alpine fighting unit that garnered accolades and much global attention during World War I and its aftermath for its flowing blue capes and blue berets.  Duke's mascot origin is considered to be military and patriotic rather than anti-religious. Historically, Duke's major rival has been the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, especially in basketball. The rivalry has led the fanbases to identify the two differing shades of blue in relation to their respective university—calling the lighter powder blue "Carolina blue" and the darker blue "Duke blue".

On the academic front, eight Duke varsity athletics programs registered a perfect 1,000 score in the NCAA's multi-year Academic Progress Report (APR) released in May 2014. APR scores for football and men's basketball were the highest among ACC schools in conference-sponsored sports. Overall Duke totaled the highest APR scores in 10 of the ACC's 25 sports.

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Student Life

Duke University has a total undergraduate enrollment of 6,626, with a gender distribution of 50.1 percent male students and 49.9 percent female students. At this school, 82 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 18 percent of students live off campus. Duke University is part of the NCAA I athletic conference.

Campus Services

Duke University offers a number of student services including women's center, placement service, health service, and health insurance. Duke University also offers campus safety and security services like 24-hour foot and vehicle patrols, late night transport/escort service, 24-hour emergency telephones, lighted pathways/sidewalks, student patrols, and controlled dormitory access (key, security card, etc). Alcohol is permitted for students of legal age at Duke University.

Summary

Duke University is a private institution that was founded in 1838. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 6,626, its setting is suburban, and the campus size is 8,709 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Duke University's ranking in the 2016 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, 8. Its tuition and fees are $49,341 (2015-16).

Durham, North Carolina, which surrounds Duke's campus, offers a variety of activities including shopping, dining and entertainment. Its "Bull City" nickname comes from the Blackwell Tobacco Company's Bull Durham Tobacco. Students at Duke are required to live on campus for their first three years, and freshmen live together on the East Campus. The Duke Blue Devils maintain a fierce rivalry with the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill Tar Heels and are best known for their outstanding men's basketball program, one of the top five winningest college basketball programs in the country. Approximately 30 percent of the student body is affiliated with Greek life, which encompasses more than 30 fraternities and sororities.

Duke University is divided into 10 schools and colleges, many of which serve both undergraduate and graduate students. Its graduate programs include the highly ranked Fuqua School of Business, Pratt School of Engineering, School of Law, School of Medicine, Sanford School of Public Policy and School of Nursing. Duke also offers graduate programs through its well-respected Divinity School and Nicholas School of the Environment. Duke's most esteemed undergraduate scholarship, the Robertson Scholars Program, provides approximately 18 students from each class with a monetary reward and the opportunity to study for a semester at UNC-Chapel Hill. Notable alumni include Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; NBA player Carlos Boozer; and former U.S. Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul.