The Angier B. Duke Scholarship program extended 25 offers to prospective freshman before receiving enough acceptances to fill this year's 15 available slots.
This marks the third consecutive year in which the acceptance rate has held steady for the scholarship, which affords its recipients four years of tuition and a six-week, two-course summer study at Oxford, England. The scholarship does not cover room and board expenses.
Of the 10 finalists who declined the scholarship, six of the students will attend Harvard University. New York University, Stanford University, the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will each enroll one of the students.
The recipients are chosen annually from a pool of about 45 finalists for their intellectual promise and leadership potential. The finalists are recommended to the program by the admissions office in February and then spend a weekend in late March at the University, during which they are interviewed by the scholarship committee.
Both Melissa Malouf, director of the program and professor of English, and Christoph Guttentag, director of undergraduate admissions, said they were thrilled with the caliber of this year's finalists.
"Once again, the finalists we brought to campus were so impressive that it was painful to be able to offer only 15 scholarships," Malouf said. "So we are especially delighted that at least two of the finalists who did not receive the scholarship will nevertheless be coming to Duke."
This year's acceptance rate is "not inappropriate or surprising," Guttentag said, given the quality of the students. He added that the University's top scholarship is competitive with other's schools efforts to bring in the most qualified applicants.
Guttentag said that no single trend can explain why students turn down the scholarship. "Anytime a student of this caliber chooses among colleges, it's never the scholarship alone that makes their decision," he explained. "It's always a combination of the scholarship and their perceptions of the institutions to which they have been admitted."
Many of those offered scholarships confirmed Guttentag's assessment that scholarship perks and school differences weigh differently in each student's decision.
Haley Surti of Pittsburgh, Pa., who plans to attend Harvard in the fall, said the scholarship mattered little in her decision. She had an extremely difficult time making her decision, she said, but ultimately chose Harvard because she was "drawn to its diversity."
But Ginger Strickland of Houston, Texas, who accepted UNC's Morehead Scholarship, said scholarship features were integral to her decision.
"I really loved Duke and I think that the A.B. Duke Scholarship might be more prestigious with the Oxford program," she said. "But I really think that the Morehead scholarship, with its internships and travel stipends for the senior year, really is unmatched."
For Jona Hattangadi of Orlando, Fla., scholarships also played an important role-but to Duke's benefit in her case. The A.B. Duke scholarship spurred her to choose Duke instead of the school that had been her first choice, Yale University.
"The scholarship was very enticing, especially with the summer in Oxford and the opportunity for study abroad," Hattangadi said.
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