The early applications have all been collated and the initial numbers are officially in.
The total number of early decision applicants rose to 1,498 this year, marking the second highest number on record. Duke also received 220 early decision applications to the Pratt School of Engineering, an increase from last year’s 197, setting a new all-time record.
“The increase in Pratt students is directly due to more aggressive recruitment on our part over the last two or three years,” said Christoph Guttentag, director of undergraduate admissions. Guttentag said the increase is not, however, directly related to the long-term goal of expanding Pratt’s class size by 200 over the next four years.
“There is no tectonic shift in our admissions procedure, just the result of hard work,” he said. “We’ve known about the increase in Pratt’s size for the past few years, and for that reason we’ve stepped up our recruitment efforts.”
This past October, the admissions office offered a specialized program just for prospective Pratt students who were from North Carolina, and representatives visiting high schools this year have been more actively pursuing these potential engineering students.
Last year Duke admitted 68 engineering students early decision, and Guttentag said admissions officials will be trying to expand that number by 40. Nevertheless, he stressed that this number was not a concrete mark. “We won’t sacrifice the quality of our class just to admit more Pratt students,” he said.
The admissions office’s unofficial focus this year is on students who have made a commitment to the arts and on those who have had experience with research outside of school. Duke is at the forefront of research and arts opportunities, Guttentag said, and it makes sense that members of the incoming freshman class need to be strong contributors to those areas. “We are always looking for students who can take advantage of what Duke can offer,” he noted.
This year the diversity of the early admissions application pool also rose. Thirty percent of the applicants were minorities, compared to 27 percent last year. The African-American and Latino ethnic groups were the strongest represented.
Although schools typically use the early decision and early action admissions process to compete for top prospective students, Guttentag affirmed the University’s early decision program is solely for students who have Duke as their “unquestioned first choice.”
Duke typically only takes 30 percent of its incoming class during early decision, and although the numbers of applicants were up this year, the total acceptance numbers will remain consistent with the past years, Guttentag said.
The admissions office is currently busy going through each application, and therefore the overall strength of the pool could not be firmly concluded. Guttentag has heard through his staff, however, that its strength has not significantly deviated from years past.
“So far there’s not a dramatic difference from this year and last,” Guttentag said. “But when it’s all said and done, it very well could be.”
Extrapolating the initial reports, Guttentag said the total number of applicants who will use the online application will rise from 38 percent last year to 50 percent this year. Duke also accepts the online common application in addition to its specific online form, and Guttentag speculated that the number of users for both will be relatively even.
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