Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. 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 The Duke Endowment and the institution changed its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke.
Duke's campus spans over on three contiguous sub-campuses in Durham as well as a marine lab in Beaufort. The West Campus—designed largely by architect Julian Abele—incorporates Gothic architecture with the Duke Chapel at the campus' center and highest point of elevation, is adjacent to the Medical Center. East Campus, away, home to all first-years, contains Georgian-style architecture. The university administers two concurrent schools in Asia, Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore and Duke Kunshan University in Kunshan, China.
Several faculty members, affiliates and alumni have been awarded the Nobel Prize in recent years. Notable examples since 2012 include Robert Lefkowitz, Brian Kobilka, Gregg L. Semenza, Paul Modrich, William Kaelin, and George Smith. In 2019, Clarivate Analytics named 54 members of Duke's faculty to its list of "Highly Cited Researchers". That number places Duke 8th among the world's universities., 15 Nobel laureates and 3 Turing Award winners have been affiliated with the university. Duke alumni also include 50 Rhodes Scholars and 25 Churchill Scholars. The university has produced the third highest number of Churchill Scholars of any university and the fifth-highest number of Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholars of any American university between 1986 and 2015. Duke is the alma mater of one president of the United States and 14 living billionaires.
Duke is the second-largest private employer in North Carolina with more than 39,000 employed as of fall 2018 and is consistently ranked among the top places to work by multiple publications, including Forbes and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
History
Beginnings
Duke first opened in 1838 as Brown's Schoolhouse, a private subscription school founded in Randolph County in the present-day town of Trinity. Organized by the Union Institute Society, a group of Methodists and Quakers, Brown's Schoolhouse became the Union Institute Academy in 1841 when North Carolina issued a charter. The academy was renamed Normal College in 1851 and then Trinity College in 1859 because of support from the Methodist Church. In 1892, Trinity College moved to Durham, largely due to generosity from Julian S. Carr and Washington Duke, powerful and respected Methodists who had grown wealthy through the tobacco and electrical industries. Carr donated land in 1892 for the original Durham campus, which is now known as East Campus. At the same time, Washington Duke gave the school $85,000 for an initial endowment and construction costs—later augmenting his generosity with three separate $100,000 contributions in 1896, 1899, and 1900—with the stipulation that the college "open its doors to women, placing them on an equal footing with men."In 1924 Washington Duke's son, James B. Duke, established The Duke Endowment with a $40 million trust fund. Income from the fund was to be distributed to hospitals, orphanages, the Methodist Church, and four colleges. William Preston Few, the president of Trinity at the time, insisted that the institution be renamed Duke University to honor the family's generosity and to distinguish it from the myriad other colleges and universities carrying the "Trinity" name. At first, James B. Duke thought the name change would come off as self-serving, but eventually, he accepted Few's proposal as a memorial to his father. Money from the endowment allowed the University to grow quickly. Duke's original campus, East Campus, was rebuilt from 1925 to 1927 with Georgian-style buildings. By 1930, the majority of the Collegiate Gothic-style buildings on the campus one mile west were completed, and construction on West Campus culminated with the completion of Duke Chapel in 1935.
In 1878, Trinity awarded A.B. degrees to three sisters—Mary, Persis, and Theresa Giles—who had studied both with private tutors and in classes with men. With the relocation of the college in 1892, the Board of Trustees voted to again allow women to be formally admitted to classes as day students. At the time of Washington Duke's donation in 1896, which carried the requirement that women be placed "on an equal footing with men" at the college, four women were enrolled; three of the four were faculty members' children. In 1903 Washington Duke wrote to the Board of Trustees withdrawing the provision, noting that it had been the only limitation he had ever put on a donation to the college. A woman's residential dormitory was built in 1897 and named the Mary Duke Building, after Washington Duke's daughter. By 1904, fifty-four women were enrolled in the college. In 1930, the Woman's College was established as a coordinate to the men's undergraduate college, which had been established and named Trinity College in 1924.
Expansion and growth
, which had been taught at Duke since 1903, became a separate school in 1939. In athletics, Duke hosted and competed in the only Rose Bowl ever played outside California in Wallace Wade Stadium in 1942. During World War II, Duke was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a navy commission. In 1963 the Board of Trustees officially desegregated the undergraduate college.Duke enrolled its first black graduate students in 1961. The school did not admit Black undergraduates until September 1963. The teaching staff remained all-White until 1966.
Increased activism on campus during the 1960s prompted Martin Luther King Jr. to speak at the University in November 1964 on the progress of the Civil Rights Movement. Following Douglas Knight's resignation from the office of university president, Terry Sanford, the former governor of North Carolina, was elected president of the university in 1969, propelling The Fuqua School of Business' opening, the William R. Perkins library completion, and the founding of the Institute of Policy Sciences and Public Affairs. The separate Woman's College merged back with Trinity as the liberal arts college for both men and women in 1972.
Beginning in the 1970s, Duke administrators began a long-term effort to strengthen Duke's reputation both nationally and internationally. Interdisciplinary work was emphasized, as was recruiting minority faculty and students. During this time it also became the birthplace of the first Physician Assistant degree program in the United States. Duke University Hospital was finished in 1980 and the student union building was fully constructed two years later. In 1986 the men's soccer team captured Duke's first National Collegiate Athletic Association championship, and the men's basketball team followed shortly thereafter with championships in 1991 and 1992, then again in 2001, 2010, and 2015.
Duke's growth and academic focus have contributed to continuing the university's reputation as an academic and research powerhouse. Duke Forward, a seven-year fundraising campaign, raised $3.85 billion through June 30, 2017. The record giving by more than 315,000 donors and foundations will enrich the student experience in and out of the classroom, invest in faculty and support research and initiatives.
Recent history
In 2014, Duke removed the name of white-supremacist leader, Charles B. Aycock, from an undergraduate dormatory. It is now known as the East Residence Hall.On August 19, 2017, following the violent clashes at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed from the entrance to the Duke University Chapel, after having been vandalized by protesters.
Controversies
In 2006, three men's lacrosse team members were falsely accused of rape, which garnered significant media attention. On April 11, 2007, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper dropped all charges and declared the three players innocent. Cooper stated that the charged players were victims of a "tragic rush to accuse." The District Attorney, Michael Nifong, was subsequently disbarred.In 2019, Duke paid $112.5 Million to settle False Claims Act allegations related to scientific research misconduct. A researcher at the school was falsifying or fabricating research data, in order to win grants for financial gain. The researcher was arrested in 2013 on charges of embezzling funds from the university. The scheme was exposed by the allegations made through a lawsuit, filed by a whistleblower, who had worked as a Duke employee, and discovered the false data.
In response to the misconduct settlement, Duke established an advisory panel of academics from Caltech, Stanford and Rockefeller University. Based on the recommendations of this panel, the Duke Office of Scientific Integrity was established under the leadership of Lawrence Carin, an engineering professor who is one of the world's leading experts on machine learning and artificial intelligence The establishment of this office brings Duke's research practices in line with those at peer institutions like Johns Hopkins University
Campus
Duke University currently owns 256 buildings on of land, which includes the Duke Forest. The campus is divided into four main areas: West, East, and Central campuses and the Medical Center, which are all connected via a free bus service. On the Atlantic coast in Beaufort, Duke owns as part of its marine lab. One of the major public attractions on the main campus is the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, established in the 1930s.Duke students often refer to the campus as "the Gothic Wonderland", a nickname referring to the Collegiate Gothic architecture of West Campus. Much of the campus was designed by Julian Abele, one of the first prominent African-American architects and the chief designer in the offices of architect Horace Trumbauer. The residential quadrangles are of an early and somewhat unadorned design, while the buildings in the academic quadrangles show influences of the more elaborate late French and Italian styles. The freshmen campus, known as East Campus, is composed of buildings in the Georgian architecture style. In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed Duke among the most beautiful college campuses in the United States.
The stone used for West Campus has seven primary colors and seventeen shades of color. The university supervisor of planning and construction wrote that the stone has "an older, more attractive antique effect" and a "warmer and softer coloring than the Princeton stone" that gave the university an "artistic look." James B. Duke initially suggested the use of stone from a quarry in Princeton, New Jersey, but later amended the plans to purchase a local quarry in Hillsborough to reduce costs. Duke Chapel stands at the center of West Campus on the highest ridge. Constructed from 1930 to 1935, the chapel seats 1,600 people and, at is one of the tallest buildings in Durham County.
A number of construction projects were in progress during 2015, including renovations to Duke Chapel, Wallace Wade Stadium and Cameron Indoor Stadium.
In early 2014, the Nicholas School of the Environment opened a new home, Environmental Hall, a five-story, glass-and-concrete building that incorporates the highest sustainable features and technologies, and meets or exceeds the criteria for LEED platinum certification. The School of Nursing in April 2014 opened a new 45,000-square-foot addition to the Christine Siegler Pearson Building. In summer 2014, a number of construction projects were completed. The project is part of the final phase of renovations to Duke's West Campus libraries that have transformed one of the university's oldest and most recognizable buildings into a state-of-the-art research facility. The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library reopened in August 2015 after about $60 million in renovations to the sections of the building built in 1928 and 1948. include more space, technology upgrades and new exhibits.
In 2013, construction projects included transforming buildings like Gross Hall and Baldwin Auditorium, plus new construction such as the Events Pavilion. About 125,000 square feet was updated at Gross Hall, including new lighting and windows and a skylight. Baldwin's upgrades include a larger stage, more efficient air conditioning for performers and audience and enhanced acoustics that will allow for the space to be "tuned" to each individual performance. The 25,000-square-foot Events Pavilion opened to students in 2013 and serves as temporary dining space while the West Campus Union undergoes major renovations, expected to be completed in the spring of 2016.
From February 2001 to November 2005, Duke spent $835 million on 34 major construction projects as part of a five-year strategic plan, "Building on Excellence." Completed projects since 2002 include major additions to the business, law, nursing, and divinity schools, a new library, the Nasher Museum of Art, a football training facility, two residential buildings, an engineering complex, a public policy building, an eye institute, two genetic research buildings, a student plaza, the French Family Science Center, and two new medical-research buildings.
In early 2012, the Duke Cancer Center opened next to Duke Hospital in Durham. The patient care facility consolidates nearly all of Duke's outpatient clinical care services.
West, East, and Central Campuses
See main article, Duke University West CampusWest Campus, considered the main campus of the University, houses the sophomores and juniors, along with some seniors. Most of the academic and administrative centers are located there. Main West Campus, with Duke Chapel at its center, contains the majority of residential quads to the south, while the main academic quad, library, and Medical Center are to the north. The campus, spanning, includes Science Drive, which is the location of science and engineering buildings. The residential quads on West Campus are Craven Quad, Crowell Quad, Edens Quad, Few Quad, Keohane Quad, Kilgo Quad, and Wannamaker Quad. Most of the campus eateries and sports facilities—including the historic basketball stadium, Cameron Indoor Stadium—are on West Campus.
East Campus, the original location of Duke after it moved to Durham, functions as a first-year campus, housing the university's freshmen dormitories as well as the home of several academic departments. Since the 1995–96 academic year, all freshmen—and only freshmen, except for upperclassmen serving as Resident Assistants—have lived on East Campus, an effort to build class unity. The campus encompasses and is from West Campus. African and African American Studies, Art History, History, Cultural Anthropology, Literature, Music, Philosophy, and Women's Studies are housed on East. Programs such as dance, drama, education, film, and the University Writing Program reside on East. The self-sufficient East Campus contains the freshmen residence halls, a dining hall, coffee shop, post office, Lilly Library, Baldwin Auditorium, a theater, Brodie Gym, tennis courts, several disc golf baskets, and a walking track as well as several academic buildings. The East Campus dorms are Alspaugh, Basset, Bell Tower, Blackwell, Brown, East House, Epworth, Gilbert-Addoms, Giles, Jarvis, Pegram, Randolph, Southgate, Trinity, and Wilson. Separated from downtown by a short walk, the area was the site of the Women's College from 1930 to 1972.
Central Campus, consisting of between East and West campuses, housed around 1,000 sophomores, juniors, and seniors, as well as around 200 professional students in double or quadruple apartments. However, the housing of undergraduates on Central Campus ended after the 2018–2019 school year. Central Campus is home to the Nasher Museum of Art, the Freeman Center for Jewish Life, the Center for Muslim Life, the Duke Police Department, the Duke Office of Disability Management, a Ronald McDonald House, and administrative departments such as Duke Residence Life and Housing Services. Central Campus has several recreation and social facilities such as basketball courts, a sand volleyball court, a turf field, barbecue grills and picnic shelters, a general gathering building called "Devil's Den", a restaurant known as "Devil's Bistro", a convenience store called Uncle Harry's, and the Mill Village. The Mill Village consists of a gym and group study rooms.
Other key places
Duke Forest, established in 1931, consists of in six divisions, just west of West Campus. The largest private research forest in North Carolina and one of the largest in the nation, the Duke Forest demonstrates a variety of forest stand types and silvicultural treatments. Duke Forest is used extensively for research and includes the Aquatic Research Facility, Forest Carbon Transfer and Storage research facility, two permanent towers suitable for micrometeorological studies, and other areas designated for animal behavior and ecosystem study. More than of trails are open to the public for hiking, cycling, and horseback riding.The Duke Lemur Center, located inside the Duke Forest, is the world's largest sanctuary for rare and endangered strepsirrhine primates. Founded in 1966, the Duke Lemur Center spans and contains nearly 300 animals of 25 different species of lemurs, galagos and lorises.
The Sarah P. Duke Gardens, established in the early 1930s, is situated between West Campus and Central Campus. The gardens occupy, divided into four major sections: the original Terraces and their surroundings; the H.L. Blomquist Garden of Native Plants, devoted to flora of the Southeastern United States; the W.L. Culberson Asiatic Arboretum, housing plants of Eastern Asia, as well as disjunct species found in Eastern Asia and Eastern North America; and the Doris Duke Center Gardens. There are of allées and paths throughout the gardens.
Duke University Medical Center, bordering Duke's West Campus northern boundary, combines one of the top-rated hospitals and one of the top-ranked medical schools in the U.S. Founded in 1930, the Medical Center occupies 8 million square feet in 99 buildings on.
Duke University Marine Laboratory, located in the town of Beaufort, North Carolina, is also technically part of Duke's campus. The marine lab is situated on Pivers Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, across the channel from Beaufort. Duke's interest in the area began in the early 1930s and the first buildings were erected in 1938. The resident faculty represent the disciplines of oceanography, marine biology, marine biomedicine, marine biotechnology, and coastal marine policy and management. The Marine Laboratory is a member of the National Association of Marine Laboratories. In May 2014, the newly built Orrin H. Pilkey Marine Research Laboratory was dedicated.
Singapore and China
In April 2005, Duke and the National University of Singapore signed a formal agreement under which the two institutions would partner to establish the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. Duke-NUS is intended to complement the National University of Singapore's existing undergraduate medical school, and had its first entering class in 2007. The curriculum is based on that of the Duke University School of Medicine. 60% of matriculates are from Singapore and 40% are from over 20 countries. The school is part of the National University of Singapore system, but distinct in that it is overseen by a Governing Board, including a Duke representative who has veto power over any academic decision made by the Board.In 2013,Duke Kunshan University, a partnership between Duke University, Wuhan University, and the city of Kunshan, was established in Kunshan, China. The university runs graduate programs and an undergraduate liberal arts college. Students are awarded degrees from both Duke Kunshan University and Duke University upon graduation and become members of Duke and DKU's alumni organizations. DKU conducted research projects on climate change, health-care policy and tuberculosis prevention and control.
Administration and organization
Duke University has 12 schools and institutes, three of which host undergraduate programs: Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Pratt School of Engineering, and Duke Kunshan University.The university has "historical, formal, ongoing, and symbolic ties" with the United Methodist Church, but is a nonsectarian and independent institution.
Duke's endowment had a market value of $8.6 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2019. The University's special academic facilities include an art museum, several language labs, the Duke Forest, the Duke Herbarium, a lemur center, a phytotron, a free electron laser, a nuclear magnetic resonance machine, a nuclear lab, and a marine lab. Duke is a leading participant in the National Lambda Rail Network and runs a program for gifted children known as the Talent Identification Program.
Academics
Admissions
Admission to Duke is defined by U.S. News & World Report as "most selective." Duke received nearly 39,800 applications for the Class of 2024, with an overall acceptance rate of 7.7%. The yield rate for the Class of 2023 was 54%. The Class of 2022 had an ACT range of 33-35 and an SAT range of 1490–1560.From 2001 to 2011, Duke has had the sixth highest number of Fulbright, Rhodes, Truman, and Goldwater scholarships in the nation among private universities. The University practices need-blind admissions and meets 100% of admitted students' demonstrated need. About 50 percent of all Duke students receive some form of financial aid, which includes need-based aid, athletic aid, and merit aid. The average need-based grant for the 2018–19 academic year was $53,255. In 2020, a study by the Chronicle of Higher Education ranked Duke first on its list of "Colleges That Are the Most Generous to the Financially Neediest Students".
Roughly 60 merit-based full tuition scholarships are offered, including the Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholarship awarded for academic excellence, the Benjamin N. Duke Scholarship awarded for community service, and the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program, a joint scholarship and leadership development program granting full student privileges at both Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. Other scholarships are geared toward students in North Carolina, African-American students, children of alumni, and high-achieving students requiring financial aid.
Graduate profile
In 2009, the School of Medicine received 5,166 applications and accepted approximately 4% of them, while the average GPA and MCAT scores for accepted students from 2002 through 2009 were 3.74 and 34, respectively. The School of Law accepted approximately 13% of its applicants for the Class of 2014, while enrolling students had a median GPA of 3.75 and median LSAT of 170.The University's graduate and professional schools include the Graduate School, the Pratt School of Engineering, the Nicholas School of the Environment, the School of Medicine, the Duke-NUS Medical School, the School of Nursing, the Fuqua School of Business, the School of Law, the Divinity School, and the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Undergraduate curriculum
Duke offers 46 arts and sciences majors, four engineering majors, 52 minors and Program II, which allows students to design their own interdisciplinary major in arts & sciences, and IDEAS, which allows students to design their own engineering major. Twenty-four certificate programs also are available. Students pursue a major and can pursue a combination of a total of up to three, including minors, certificates, and/or a second major. Eighty-five percent of undergraduates enroll in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. The balance enroll in Duke's Pratt School of Engineering.Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
Trinity's curriculum operates under the revised version of "Curriculum 2000." It ensures that students are exposed to a variety of 5 "areas of knowledge" and 6 "modes of inquiry." List of Duke Curricular Requirements, Retrieved April 25, 2019. The curriculum aims to help students develop critical faculties and judgment by learning how to access, synthesize, and communicate knowledge effectively. The intent is to assist students in acquiring perspective on current and historical events, conducting research and solving problems, and developing tenacity and a capacity for hard and sustained work. Freshmen can elect to participate in the FOCUS Program, which allows students to engage in an interdisciplinary exploration of a specific topic in a small group setting in their first semesters.Pratt School of Engineering
The curriculum of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, significantly transformed in recent years, immerses students in design, computing, research, and entrepreneurship — but still accommodates educational opportunities, including double majors, in a variety of disciplines from across Duke. The school emphasizes undergraduate research opportunities with faculty. Research and design opportunities arise through a real-world design course for first-year students, internships, independent study and research fellowships, and through design-focused capstone courses. More than 60 percent of Duke Engineering undergraduates have an intensive research experience during their four years, and nearly a fifth publish or present a research paper off-campus. Nearly 54 percent of Duke Engineering undergraduates intern or study abroad. Eighty-five percent have jobs or job offers at the time of graduation.Libraries and museums
Duke Libraries includes the Perkins, Bostock, and Rubenstein Libraries on West Campus, the Lilly and Music Libraries on East Campus, the Pearse Memorial Library at the Duke Marine Lab, and the separately administered libraries serving the schools of business, divinity, law and medicine.Duke's art collections are housed at the Nasher Museum of Art on Central Campus. The museum was designed by Rafael Viñoly and is named for Duke alumnus and art collector Raymond Nasher. The museum opened in 2005 at a cost of over $23 million and contains over 13,000 works of art, including works by William Cordova, Marlene Dumas, Olafur Eliasson, David Hammons, Barkley L. Hendricks, Christian Marclay, Kerry James Marshall, Alma Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas, Bob Thompson, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Carrie Mae Weems, Ai Weiwei, Fred Wilson, and Lynette Yiadom Boakye.
Research
Duke's research expenditures in the 2018 fiscal year were $1.168 billion, the tenth largest in the U.S. In fiscal year 2019 Duke received $571 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Duke is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".Throughout the school's history, Duke researchers have made breakthroughs, including the biomedical engineering department's development of the world's first real-time, three-dimensional ultrasound diagnostic system and the first engineered blood vessels and stents. In 2015, Paul Modrich shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 2012, Robert Lefkowitz along with Brian Kobilka, who is also a former affiliate, shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on cell surface receptors. Duke has pioneered studies involving nonlinear dynamics, chaos, and complex systems in physics.
In May 2006 Duke researchers mapped the final human chromosome, which made world news as the Human Genome Project was finally complete. Reports of Duke researchers' involvement in new AIDS vaccine research surfaced in June 2006. The biology department combines two historically strong programs in botany and zoology, while one of the divinity school's leading theologians is Stanley Hauerwas, whom Time named "America's Best Theologian" in 2001. The graduate program in literature boasts several internationally renowned figures, including Fredric Jameson, Michael Hardt, and Rey Chow, while philosophers Robert Brandon and Lakatos Award-winner Alexander Rosenberg contribute to Duke's ranking as the nation's best program in philosophy of biology, according to the Philosophical Gourmet Report.
The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index ranked Duke's faculty first in the nation in the fields of Oncology and Cancer Biology, Biomedical Engineering and Applied Economics. The Public Policy, Statistics, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Medicine and Molecular Genetics departments all ranked in the top five. Several other departments including Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Nursing ranked in the top ten.
Reputation and rankings
Undergraduate rankings
In the past thirty years, U.S. News & World Report has placed Duke as high as 3rd and as low as 10th. Duke University is ranked in the top 10 in the following college ranking publications: Niche, U.S. News & World Report, Washington Monthly, Kiplinger, The Wall Street Journal "Student Outcomes", The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Washington Post, CollegeFactual and Business Insider. In 2014, Duke was ranked 1st in the United States for majors in psychology, and 10th overall for computer science and engineering. In 2014 and 2018, Duke was ranked 1st in the United States for majors in economics. In 2016, The Washington Post ranked Duke 7th overall based on the accumulated weighted average of the rankings from U.S. News & World Report, Washington Monthly, Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education, Times Higher Education, Money and Forbes.In 2020, Duke was ranked 22nd in the world by U.S. News & World Report and 20th in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. QS World University Rankings ranked Duke 25th the world for its 2020 rankings. Duke was ranked 28th best globally by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2019, focusing on quality of scientific research and the number of Nobel Prizes. The 2010 report by the Center for Measuring University Performance puts Duke at 6th in the nation.
The 2012 Global Employability Ranking as published by The New York Times surveyed hundreds of chief executives and chairmen from around the world and asked them to select the best universities from which they recruited. Duke placed 26th in the world and 12th in the country. Duke also ranked 42nd in the world and 12th in the country on Times Higher Educations global employability ranking in 2019.
In 2018, Duke enrolled 106 National Merit Scholars, the 19th university in rank by number. Duke ranks 5th among national universities to have produced Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholars., Duke graduates have received 25 Churchill Scholarships to the University of Cambridge. Only graduates of Princeton and Harvard have received more Churchill awards. Kiplingers 50 Best Values in Private Universities 2013–14 ranks Duke at 5th best overall after taking financial aid into consideration.
In a 2016 study by Forbes, Duke ranked 11th among universities in the United States that have produced billionaires and 1st among universities in the South. A survey by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education in 2002 ranked Duke as the #1 university in the country in regard to the integration of African American students and faculty. According to a poll of recruiters conducted by The Wall Street Journal, Duke ranks 2nd in terms of producing the best graduates who have received either a marketing or liberal arts degree. In a corporate study carried out by The New York Times, Duke's graduates were shown to be among the most valued in the world, and Forbes magazine ranked Duke 7th in the world on its list of 'power factories' in 2012. Duke was ranked 17th on Thomson Reuters' list of the world's most innovative universities in 2015. The ranking graded universities based on patent volume and research output among other factors. In 2015, NPR ranked Duke first on its list of "schools that make financial sense". Time magazine ranked Duke third on its list of the "Best 50 Colleges for African Americans". The ranking was based on representation, affordability and post-graduate earnings. In 2016, Forbes ranked Duke sixth on its list of "Expensive Schools Worth Every Penny".
Duke has also been recognized as the third-best university employer in the country, behind Stanford University and Harvard University.
Graduate school rankings
Duke has been named one of the top universities for graduate outcomes several years in a row, having tied with Harvard University and Yale University. In U.S. News & World Reports "America's Best Graduate Schools 2021", Duke's medical school ranked tied for 12th in research and 26th in primary care. The School of Law was ranked 12th in the 2021 rankings by the same publication, with Duke's nursing school ranked 2nd while the Sanford School of Public Policy ranked 5th in Public Policy Analysis for 2019.Among business schools in the United States, the Fuqua School of Business is ranked tied for 10th overall by U.S. News & World Report for 2020, while BusinessWeek ranked its full-time MBA program 1st in the nation in 2014. The graduate programs of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering ranked 24th in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report in its 2020 rankings.
Times Higher Education ranked the mathematics department tenth in the world in 2011. Duke's graduate level specialties that are ranked among the top ten in the nation include areas in the following departments: biological sciences, medicine, nursing, engineering, law, business, English, history, physics, statistics, public affairs, physician assistant, clinical psychology, political science, and sociology. In 2007, Duke was ranked 22nd in the world by Wuhan University's Research Center for Chinese Science Evaluation. The ranking was based on journal article publication counts and citation frequencies in over 11,000 academic journals from around the world. A 2012 study conducted by academic analytics ranks Duke fourth in the nation in terms of faculty productivity. In 2013, Duke Law ranked 6th in Forbes magazine's ranking of law schools whose graduates earn the highest starting salaries. In 2013, Duke's Fuqua School of Business was ranked 6th in terms of graduate starting salaries by U.S. News & World Report. In the same year, a ranking compiled by the University of Texas at Dallas ranked Fuqua 5th in the world based on the research productivity of its faculty. The MEM program has been ranked 3rd in the world by Eduniversal In 2013, Forbes ranked Duke 4th in the nation in terms of return on investment. The ranking used alumni giving as a criterion to determine which private colleges offer the best returns. In 2018, Above the Law ranked Duke Law 3rd in the nation in its ranking of law schools based on employment outcomes. In 2013, Business Insider ranked Duke's Fuqua School of Business 5th in the world based on an extensive survey of hiring professionals. In the same year, Forbes magazine ranked Fuqua 8th in the country based on return on investment. In 2014, Duke was named the 20th best global research university according to rankings published by U.S. News & World Report and the University Ranking by Academic Performance published by Middle East Technical University. The U.S. News ranking was based on 10 indicators that measure academic research performance and global reputations. The University Ranking by Academic Performance uses citation data obtained from Thomson Reuters' Web of Science to rank universities based on research output.
Student life
Student body
Duke's student body consists of 6,994 undergraduates and 8,898 graduate and professional students.Residential life
Duke requires its students to live on campus for the first three years of undergraduate life, except for a small percentage of second-semester juniors who are exempted by a lottery system. This requirement is justified by the administration as an effort to help students connect more closely with one another and sustain a sense of belonging within the Duke community. Thus, 85% of undergraduates live on campus. All freshmen are housed in one of 14 residences on East Campus. These buildings range in occupancy size from 50 to 250 residents. Most of these are in the Georgian style typical of the East Campus architecture. Although the newer residence halls differ in style, they still relate to East's Georgian heritage. Learning communities connect the residential component of East Campus with students of similar academic and social interests. Similarly, students in FOCUS, a first-year program that features courses clustered around a specific theme, live together in the same residence hall as other students in their cluster.Sophomores and juniors reside on West Campus, while the majority of undergraduate seniors choose to live off campus. West Campus contains six quadrangles—the four along "Main" West were built in 1930s, while two newer ones have since been added. Central Campus provided housing for over 1,000 students in apartment buildings, until 2019. All housing on West Campus is organized into "houses"—sections of residence halls—to which students can return each year. House residents create their house identities. There are houses of unaffiliated students, as well as wellness houses and living-learning communities that adopt a theme such as the arts or foreign languages. There are also numerous "selective living groups" on campus for students wanting self-selected living arrangements. SLGs are residential groups similar to fraternities or sororities, except they are generally co-ed and unaffiliated with any national organization. Many of them also revolve around a particular interest such as entrepreneurship, civic engagement or African-American or Asian culture. Fifteen fraternities and nine sororities also are housed on campus. Most of the non-fraternity selective living groups are coeducational.
Greek and social life
About 30% of undergraduate men and about 40% of undergraduate women at Duke are members of fraternities and sororities. Most of the 17 Interfraternity Council recognized fraternity chapters live in sections within the residence halls. Eight National Pan-Hellenic Council fraternities and sororities also hold chapters at Duke. The first historically African American Greek letter organization at Duke University was the Omega Psi Phi, Omega Zeta chapter, founded on April 12, 1974. In addition, there are seven other fraternities and sororities that are a part of the Inter-Greek Council, the multicultural Greek umbrella organization. Duke also has Selective Living Groups, or SLGs, on campus for students seeking informal residential communities often built around themes. SLGs are residential groups similar to fraternities or sororities, except they are generally co-ed and unaffiliated with any national organizations. Fraternity chapters and SLGs frequently host social events in their residential sections, which are often open to non-members.In the late 1990s, a new keg policy was put into effect that requires all student groups to purchase kegs through Duke Dining Services. According to administrators, the rule change was intended as a way to ensure compliance with alcohol consumption laws as well as to increase on-campus safety. Some students saw the administration's increasingly strict policies as an attempt to alter social life at Duke. As a result, off-campus parties at rented houses became more frequent in subsequent years as a way to avoid Duke policies. Many of these houses were situated in the midst of family neighborhoods, prompting residents to complain about excessive noise and other violations. Police have responded by breaking up parties at several houses, handing out citations, and occasionally arresting party-goers. In the mid-to-late 2000s, the administration made a concerted effort to help students re-establish a robust, on-campus social life and has worked with numerous student groups, especially the Duke University Union, to feature a wide array of events and activities. In March 2006, the university purchased 15 houses in the Trinity Park area that Duke students had typically rented and subsequently sold them to individual families in an effort to encourage renovations to the properties and to reduce off-campus partying in the midst of residential neighborhoods.
Duke athletics, particularly men's basketball, traditionally serves as a significant component of student life. Duke's students have been recognized as some of the most creative and original fans in all of collegiate athletics. Students, often referred to as Cameron Crazies, show their support of the men's basketball team by "tenting" for home games against key Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, especially rival University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Because tickets to all varsity sports are free to students, they line up for hours before each game, often spending the night on the sidewalk. For a mid-February game against UNC, some of the most eager students might even begin tenting before spring classes begin. The total number of participating tents is capped at 100, though interest is such that it could exceed that number if space permitted. Tenting involves setting up and inhabiting a tent on the grass near Cameron Indoor Stadium, an area known as Krzyzewskiville, or K-Ville for short. There are different categories of tenting based on the length of time and number of people who must be in the tent. At night, K-Ville often turns into the scene of a party or occasional concert. The men's basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, occasionally buys pizza for the inhabitants of the tent village.
Activities
Student organizations
More than 400 student clubs and organizations operate on Duke's campus. These include numerous student government, special interest, and service organizations. Duke Student Government charters and provides most of the funding for other student groups and represents students' interests when dealing with the administration. The Duke University Union is the school's primary programming organization, serving a center of social, cultural, intellectual and recreational life. There are a number of student-run businesses operating on campus, including Campus Enterprises, which offer students real-world business experience. Cultural groups are provided funding directly from the university via the Multicultural Center as well as other institutional funding sources. One of the most popular activities on campus is competing in sports. Duke has 37 , and several intramural teams that are officially recognized. Performance groups such as Hoof 'n' Horn, the country's second-oldest student-run musical theater organization, a cappella groups, student bands, and theater organizations are also prominent on campus. As of the 2016–2017 school year, there are seven a cappella groups recognized by the Duke University A Cappella Council: Deja Blue, Lady Blue, Out of the Blue, the Pitchforks, Rhythm & Blue, Something Borrowed Something Blue, and Speak of the Devil. The Duke University mock trial team won the national championship in 2012. The Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee provides guidance to the administration on issues regarding student dining, life, and restaurant choices.Cultural groups on campus include the Asian Students Association, Blue Devils United, Black Student Alliance, Diya, Jewish Life at Duke, Mi Gente, International Association/International Council, Muslim Student Association, Native American Student Coalition, Newman Catholic Student Center, Languages Dorm, and Students of the Caribbean.
Civic engagement
More than 75 percent of Duke students pursue service-learning opportunities in Durham and around the world through DukeEngage and other programs that advance the university's mission of "knowledge in service to society." Launched in 2007, DukeEngage provides full funding for select Duke undergraduates who wish to pursue an immersive summer of service in partnership with a U.S. or international community. As of summer 2013, more than 2,400 Duke students had volunteered through DukeEngage in 75 nations on six continents. Duke students have created more than 30 service organizations in Durham and the surrounding area. Examples include a weeklong camp for children of cancer patients and a group that promotes awareness about sexual health, rape prevention, alcohol and drug use, and eating disorders. The Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, started by the Office of Community Affairs in 1996, attempts to address major concerns of local residents and schools by leveraging university resources. Another community project, "Scholarship with a Civic Mission", is a joint program between the Hart Leadership Program and the Kenan Institute for Ethics. Another program includes Project CHILD, a tutoring program involving 80 first-year volunteers; and an after-school program for at-risk students in Durham that was started with $2.25 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation in 2002. Two prominent civic engagement pre-orientation programs also exist for incoming freshmen: Project CHANGE and Project BUILD. Project CHANGE is a free weeklong program co-sponsored by the Kenan Institute for Ethics and the Duke Women's Center with the focus on ethical leadership and social change in the Durham community; students are challenged in a variety of ways and work closely with local non-profits. Project BUILD is a freshman volunteering group that dedicates 3,300 hours of service to a variety of projects such as schools, Habitat for Humanity, food banks, substance rehabilitation centers, homeless shelters. Some courses at Duke incorporate service as part of the curriculum to augment material learned in class such as in psychology or education courses.Student media
The Chronicle, Duke's independent undergraduate daily newspaper, has been continually published since 1905 and now, along with its website, has a readership of about 70,000. Its editors are responsible for selecting the term "Blue Devil". The newspaper won Best in Show in the tabloid division at the 2005 Associated Collegiate Press National College Media Convention. Cable 13, established in 1976, is Duke's student-run television station. It is a popular activity for students interested in film production and media. WXDU, licensed in 1983, is the university's nationally recognized, noncommercial FM radio station, operated by student and community volunteers.The Rival Duke is an online-only, student run publication. The three sections, campus, culture, and current, feature opinion and commentary.
Duke Alumni Association
Duke Alumni Association is an alumni association automatically available to all Duke graduates. Benefits include alumni events, a global network of regional DAA alumni chapters, educational and travel opportunities and communications such as The Blue Note, social media and Duke Magazine. It provides access to the Duke Lemur Center, Nasher Museum of Art, Duke Rec Centers and other campus facilities.''Duke Magazine''
Duke Magazine, an alumni magazine, is the university's flagship vehicle for stories about the Duke community. It has been published five-six times a year by the Office of Alumni Affairs since 2002.Athletics
Teams for then Trinity College were known originally as the Trinity Eleven, the Blue and White or the Methodists. William H. Lander, as editor-in-chief, and Mike Bradshaw, as managing editor, of the Trinity Chronicle began the academic year 1922-23 referring to the athletic teams as the Blue Devils. The Chronicle staff continued its use and through repetition, Blue Devils eventually caught on.The Duke University Athletic Association chairs 27 sports and more than 650 student-athletes. The Blue Devils are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level, the Football Bowl Subdivision and Atlantic Coast Conference. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, fencing, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and wrestling; women's sports include basketball, cross country, fencing, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and volleyball.
Duke's teams have won 16 NCAA team national championships—the women's golf team has won six, the men's basketball team has won five, the men's lacrosse team has won three, and the men's soccer and women's tennis teams have won one each. Duke consistently ranks among the top in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Directors' Cup, an overall measure of an institution's athletic success. For Division I in 2015, Duke finished 20th overall and fifth in the ACC. The Blue Devils have finished within the top 10 six times since the inception of the Cup in 1993–94. Also, Athletic Director Kevin White earned multiple awards in 2014, including the National Football Foundation's John L. Toner Award.
On the academic front, nine Duke varsity athletics programs registered a perfect 1,000 score in the NCAA's multi-year Academic Progress Report released in April 2016.
Men's basketball
Duke's men's basketball team is one of the nation's most successful basketball programs. The team's success has been particularly outstanding over the past 30 years under coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Blue Devils are the only team to win five national championships since the NCAA Tournament field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985, 11 Final Fours in the past 25 years, and eight of nine ACC tournament championships from 1999 to 2006. Coach K has also coached the USA men's national basketball team since 2006 and led the team to Olympic golds in 2008, 2012, and 2016. His teams also won World Championship gold in 2010 and 2014. Overall, 32 Duke players have been selected in the first round of the NBA Draft in the Coach K era. More than 50 Duke players have been selected in the NBA Draft.Football
The Blue Devils have won seven ACC Football Championships, have had ten players honored as ACC Player of the Year, and have had three Pro Football Hall of Famers come through the program. The Blue Devils have produced 11 College Football Hall of Famers, which is tied for the 2nd most in the ACC. Duke has also won 18 total conference championships. That total is tied with Clemson for the highest in the ACC.The most famous Duke football season came in 1938, when Wallace Wade coached the "Iron Dukes" that shut out all regular season opponents; only three teams in history can claim such a feat. That same year, Duke made their first Rose Bowl appearance, where they lost 7–3 when USC scored a touchdown in the final minute of the game. Wade's Blue Devils lost another Rose Bowl to Oregon State in 1942, this one held at Duke's home stadium due to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which resulted in the fear that a large gathering on the West Coast might be in range of Japanese aircraft carriers. The football program proved successful in the 1950s and 1960s, winning six of the first ten ACC football championships from 1953 to 1962 under coach Bill Murray; the Blue Devils would not win the ACC championship again until 1989 under coach Steve Spurrier.
David Cutcliffe was brought in prior to the 2008 season, and amassed more wins in his first season than the previous three years combined. The 2009 team won 5 of 12 games, and was eliminated from bowl contention in the next-to-last game of the season. Mike MacIntyre, the defensive coordinator, was named 2009 Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association.
While the football team has struggled at times on the field, the graduation rate of its players is consistently among the highest among Division I FBS schools. Duke's high graduation rates have earned it more AFCA Academic Achievement Awards than any other institution.
In 2012, the Duke football team made its first bowl game appearance since 1994 with a win over arch-rival North Carolina, a bowl which they would lose to the Cincinnati Bearcats in the by a score of 48–34.
2013 marked the beginning of the Blue Devils' recent but relative success, having a breakout 10–2, 6-2 season while claiming the title of Coastal Division Champions. Duke would go on to play the Florida State Seminoles in the ACC Championship game where they would lose to the national champions 45–7. Duke received an invite to the Chick-fil-a Peach Bowl that same year in which they took on the Texas A&M Aggies led by college football legend Johnny Manziel, losing by a score of 52–48.
For the 2014 season, Duke finished 9–3, 5–3 and earned a trip to the Sun Bowl, where the Blue Devils lost to the Pac-12's Arizona State 36–31. In 2015, the Detroit Lions drafted Duke offensive guard Laken Tomlinson and the Washington Redskins drafted wide receiver Jamison Crowder. In 2019, Duke quarterback Daniel Jones was drafted 6th overall by the New York Giants.
Track and field
In 2003 Norm Ogilvie was promoted to Director of Track and Field, and has led athletes to over 60 individual ACC championships, and 81 All-America selections, along with most of the track and field records being broken during his tenure. A new facility, the Morris Williams Track and Field Stadium, opened in 2015.Notable people
Duke's active alumni base of more than 145,000 devote themselves to the university through organizations and events such as the annual Reunion Weekend and Homecoming. There are 75 Duke clubs in the U.S. and 38 such international clubs. For the 2008–09 fiscal year, Duke tied for third in alumni giving rate among U.S. colleges and universities according to U.S. News & World Report. Based on statistics compiled by PayScale in 2011, Duke alumni rank seventh in mid-career median salary among all U.S. colleges and universities. A number of alumni have made significant contributions in the fields of government, law, science, academia, business, arts, journalism, and athletics, among others.Rhodes Scholars
Among academic achievements at Duke, three students were named Rhodes Scholars in both 2002 and 2006, a number surpassed only by Harvard in 2002 and the United States Military Academy in 2006. Overall, Duke has produced 50 through 2019, including 28 between 1990 and 2019.Government
, 37th President of the United States graduated with a law degree in 1937. Former U.S. Senator and Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole, 33rd President of Chile Ricardo Lagos, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Juanita M. Kreps, congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul, U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs and former Chief of Staff of the United States Army Eric Shinseki, and the first United States Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey are among the most notable alumni with involvement in politics and government. Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani serves as the Chairperson of Qatar Museums Authority. Kevin Martin was Chairman of the FCC. Rex Adams serves as the Chairman of PBS. Amit Mitra, finance minister of the Indian state of West Bengal.Academia and research
Duke affiliates who have won the Nobel Prize in Physics include Hans Dehmelt for his development of the ion trap technique, Robert Richardson for his discovery of superfluidity in helium-3, and Charles Townes for his work on quantum electronics. Other alumni in research and academia include Turing Award winners Fred Brooks, Edmund M. Clarke and John Cocke, Templeton Prize winning physicist and religion scholar Ian Barbour, MacArthur Award recipient Paul Farmer, and former Dean of the Graduate School at Princeton Theodore Ziolkowski. Duke professor Robert J. Lefkowitz shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Professor Paul Modrich shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and Ingrid Daubechies, currently a James B. Duke professor of mathematics, served as the first woman president of the International Mathematical Union and is known for pioneering work on Wavelets.Journalism
Prominent journalists include talk show host Charlie Rose, The Washington Post sports writer John Feinstein, Chief Washington Correspondent for CNBC and The Wall Street Journal writer John Harwood, CBS News President Sean McManus, chief legal correspondent for Good Morning America Dan Abrams, and CNN anchor and senior correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Judy Woodruff. Basketball analysts and commentators include Jay Bilas, Mike Gminski, Jim Spanarkel, and Jay Williams. Magazine editors include Rik Kirkland of Fortune and Clay Felker, founder of New York Magazine.Literature
In the area of literature, William Styron won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1968 for his novel The Confessions of Nat Turner and is well known for his 1979 novel Sophie's Choice. Anne Tyler also received the Pulitzer Prize for her 1988 novel Breathing Lessons. Additionally, Elizabeth A. Fenn won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2015. Other acclaimed writers include John W. Campbell and Reynolds Price.In the visual arts realm, Cody Ko, Annabeth Gish, Ken Jeong, Retta, Jared Harris, Randall Wallace, Mike Posner, David Hudgins and Robert Yeoman headline the list.
Business
The current or recent president, CEO, or chairman of each of the following Fortune 500 companies is a Duke alumnus: Apple, Bear Stearns, BB&T, Chesapeake Energy, Cisco Systems, General Motors, Ingersoll Rand, JPMorgan Chase, Kaplan, Medtronic, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston, Norfolk Southern, Northwest Airlines, Panda Restaurant Group, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Pfizer, The Bank of New York Mellon, Wachovia, Volkswagen.Companies founded by Duke alumni include the nation's wealthiest charitable foundation at $31.9 billion: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Carlyle Group, Boston Scientific, The Pritzker Group, principal owner of Hyatt Hotels and TransUnion, PIMCO, and 1-800-Flowers.
Recent notable startups founded by Duke alumni include Box, Yext, Mint, Coinbase, Plaid, Duolingo, Airtable, and Neuralink.
Athletics
Management and ownership of professional athletic franchises include Adam Silver, John P. Angelos, Aubrey McClendon, John Canning, Jr., Danny Ferry, Stephen Pagliuca, and Jeffrey Vinik.Several athletes have become stars at the professional level, especially in basketball's NBA. Art Heyman, Shane Battier, Corey Maggette, Elton Brand, Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, J. J. Redick, Grayson Allen, Jabari Parker, Jayson Tatum, Brandon Ingram, Jahlil Okafor, Zion Williamson and NBA Champion Kyrie Irving are among the most famous. Offensive linesman Lennie Friedman played for four National Football League teams, and Ed Newman was an All-Pro offensive lineman.
Men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski led the US men's team to three gold medals, and Abigail Johnston won a silver medal in synchronized diving at the 2012 Summer Olympics while an undergraduate at Duke and competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics while attending Duke Medical School. Ibtihaj Muhammad was the first woman to compete at the Olympic Games while wearing a hijab and became the first female Muslim-American athlete to earn an Olympic medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics.