Admissions offers for the Class of 2013 swelled in size Thursday evening as 3,517 high school seniors found out they were admitted to the University's most selective batch to date.
The newest admits bring the overall acceptance rate to 17 percent-the lowest in Duke's history.
"We'll be denying and waitlisting people that we may have easily admitted a year or two ago," Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag said Thursday morning. "In terms of talent broadly defined, this is the best class we've ever seen. And that's made possible by a larger applicant pool."
The total number of accepted students from early decision and regular decision pools is 4,065: 3,109 in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and 956 in the Pratt School of Engineering. Approximately 250 fewer regular decision applicants were offered spots this year than last year because of the large number of early decision offers, totaling 548.
"Every year that we reach a new superlative is a testament to the Duke experience," said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. "We had a record number of applicants and one of the largest percent increases in applications among our peers-that's clearly a recognition that Duke is a very desirable destination for a lot of people."
The current economic climate, however, does cast some degree of uncertainty on how many of the new admits will accept their offers. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions has prepared by putting a group of approximately 1,000 alternates on the waitlist, Guttentag said.
The likelihood of each individual applicant accepting his or her offer, however, was not a factor that weighed into final decisions, he added.
Guttentag said he expects yield to be higher than last year, when 41 percent of admitted students accepted their offers. The University ultimately admitted 200 students off the waitlist for the Class of 2012.
"For students choosing among private universities, for the most part students will be making decisions similar to the kind of decisions they made last year," Guttentag said. "What we'll be watching closely is the decisions students make between private universities and public universities. The fact that so many more students applied at the very least gives us hope that the economy has not diminished their interest in Duke."
New admit Katherine Morrow, a native of Savannah, Ga., faced such a decision after she was deferred as an early decision applicant.
"It made me seriously consider University of Georgia because economically, it's a lot better for my family," she said. "But Duke is just such a fantastic school. The money is going to be hard, but I think they're going to make it work."
Financial aid packages are not yet available online, Morrow said, but she is expecting to get her offer next week. Alison Rabil, assistant vice provost and director of Financial Aid, was unavailable for comment Thursday.
Administrators said they are especially committed to working with students to make Duke affordable in the recession.
"In a time when there has been a lot of concern as to what's going to happen in higher education, I think it's a real tribute to Duke's continued prominence... that the number of applications received this year were way up," said Steve Nowicki, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education. "I hope that no student chooses not to come to Duke because they think they can't afford it."
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