Duke has admitted just under a quarter of high school hopefuls into the Class of 2016.
The 648 newest Duke students were notified Wednesday evening, selected from a record 2,641 applicants. This resulted in an all-time low acceptance rate for the early decision program, at 24 percent.
“We’ve denied more students this year than we have in the past,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag said. “I feel like we have a certain responsibility to students if we’re certain that we wouldn’t admit them in April.”
Some admits cited the faculty, though others referenced Krzyzewskiville as reasons for entering a binding admissions contract with the University.
“I fell in love with [Duke] while I was staying there,” said Harry Hodgkins, a senior at The Polytechnic School in Pasadena, Calif.. “I’m hoping most for some class spirit, but I’m pretty sure that’s guaranteed, and I’m really looking forward to tenting.”
The admitted students will make up 38 percent of the incoming class, as admitted regular decision applicants will fill the approximate remaining 1,057 spots. The regular decision pool is growing much larger than in past years, so Duke wants to give regular decision applicants a fair shot at being admitted, Guttentag said.
“We are comfortable giving some advantage to early decision applicants because we love the commitment and the enthusiasm,” he said. “But at the same time, we understand that there are literally tens of thousands of students who are not in the position to make that commitment.”
Compared to the current freshman class, the Class of 2016 is more geographically dispersed at this point and has fewer admitted from Duke’s top 10 states, including New York, California and Florida, Guttentag said. These three states still have the greatest representation among the admitted students, however, with an increase in admits from Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri and South Carolina, according to a news release Nov. 14.
Under both early and regular decision, Duke looks for the same qualities in these students, Guttentag said, noting intellectual ability, creativity, interesting talents, impact, engagement and diversity.
Jake Cooper, a senior at The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, N.J., said the University’s emphasis on student life caused him to apply through the early decision program.
“Ultimately for me, it came down to the people,” Cooper said. “People who have gone to Duke are genuine, well-rounded kids—they’re two-dimensional because it’s not just about work, but they do things outside of the classroom too.”
Michael Temple, also a senior at The Lawrenceville School, said he chose Duke partly because of the University’s engaging professors.
“My brother went to Duke, so I had the advantage of seeing it through a lens that he had already developed,” Temple said. “I’m excited to be surrounded by high caliber students who are motivated, and I hope that we are open to each other’s differences.”
Correction: The Lawrenceville School is located in Lawrenceville, N.J.. A previous version of this article stated otherwise. The Chronicle regrets the error.
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