Duke University Data & Information Overview
This overview covers the essential stats on Duke University, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more. Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.- Rankings
- Admission and Acceptance
- Faculty
- Retention and Graduation Rates
- Diversity
- Cost
- Student Debt
- Average Earnings
- Location
- Majors
- Online Learning
- Related Schools
How Well Is Duke University Ranked?
2023 Rankings
College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.
Duke University was awarded 3,188 badges in the 2023 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is environmental control technology.
Overall Quality
Duke landed the #3 spot in College Factual's 2023 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,241 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation! This is an improvement over the previous year, when Duke held the #9 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Duke is also ranked #1 out of 93 schools in North Carolina.
See all of the rankings for Duke University.
Is It Hard to Get Into Duke?
Acceptance Rate
Even if you have the best grades and high test scores, that may not be enough to get into Duke since the school has one of the most selective in the country. Its acceptance rate is a mere 8%, so there's no shame if you don't get in. Be sure to apply to other schools just in case.
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.
Learn more about Duke University admissions.
Duke University Faculty
Student to Faculty Ratio
The student to faculty ratio at Duke is an impressive 6 to 1. That's quite good when you compare it to the national average of 15 to 1. This is a good sign that students at the school will have more opportunities for one-on-one interactions with their professors.
Percent of Full-Time Faculty
Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.
The full-time faculty percentage at Duke University is 92%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Retention and Graduation Rates at Duke University
Freshmen Retention Rate
Duke University has a freshmen retention rate of 97%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
Graduation Rate
Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Duke the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 87%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Duke University.
Duke University Undergraduate Student Diversity
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 6,717 undergraduates at Duke with 6,572 being full-time and 145 being part-time.
How Much Does Duke University Cost?
The overall average net price of Duke is $32,459. 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.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Duke, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 0.3%. 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.
Get more details about paying for Duke University.
How Much Money Do Duke Graduates Make?
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from Duke make around $93,115 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future Duke graduates since it is 119% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.
See which majors at Duke University make the most money.
Location of Duke University
Duke University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Durham, North Carolina. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.Get more details about the location of Duke University.
Contact details for Duke are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 103 Allen Bldg, Durham, NC 27708 |
| Phone: | 919-684-8111 |
| Website: | www.duke.edu/ |
| Facebook: | https://www.facebook.com/DukeUniv |
| Twitter: | https://twitter.com/DukeU |
Duke University Majors
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 86 majors graduated from Duke University. Of these students, 2,311 received undergraduate degrees and 4,008 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Computer Science | 345 | $115,135 |
| Public Policy | 190 | $51,435 |
| General Biology | 177 | $20,909 |
| Economics | 161 | $94,699 |
| Nursing | 147 | $65,409 |
| Child Development & Psychology | 131 | NA |
| Political Science & Government | 105 | $43,130 |
| Computer Engineering | 102 | $108,817 |
| Biomedical Engineering | 93 | $67,573 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 90 | $71,314 |
Online Learning at Duke
Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.
In 2019-2020, 6,845 students took at least one online class at Duke University. This is an increase from the 997 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-2020 | 6,845 | 2,997 |
| 2018-2019 | 997 | 784 |
| 2017-2018 | 1,010 | 790 |
| 2016-2017 | 908 | 701 |
| 2015-2016 | 940 | 768 |
Learn more about online learning at Duke University.
Find Out More About Duke University
Related Schools
If you’re considering Duke University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
- Cornell University
- Rice University
- University of Chicago
- University of Pennsylvania
- Washington and Lee University
Curious on how these schools stack up against Duke? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!
Notes and References
Footnotes
*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.
References
- National Center for Education Statistics
- College Scorecard
- Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
- Image Credit: By Bjoertvedt under License
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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