Duke undergraduates may have certain advantages in admissions to the University’s professional schools compared to applicants from other institutions.
Many Duke undergraduates apply to Duke graduate and professional schools each year. Although there is some debate as to whether attending Duke as an undergraduate poses a benefit or a hindrance to their acceptance, admissions deans from the graduate and professional schools note that there are factors of a Duke undergraduate’s application that appeal to admissions officers in ways that other applicants cannot replicate.
The familiarity that Duke admissions officers have with the school allows for an “instant credibility” in Duke undergraduates’ letters of recommendations—a “really important” element of each application—said William Hoye associate dean for admissions and student affairs at the School of Law.
“When we have a Duke undergraduate, it just occurs to us immediately that this is someone who has been through a high-quality, rigorous curriculum, and the committee members know the faculty who are writing on behalf of the applicants,” Hoye said. “We put equal weight to all letters of recommendation, but these letters have potentially more power and more influence because we trust what is being said.”
Hoye said there is “no merit” to the claim that the Law School prefers non-Duke applicants. In fact, out of this year’s 206-student first-year class, 21 of them were Duke undergraduates, which is “more than any other undergraduate school by far.”
“It seems to the students that we don’t like our undergraduates,” he said. “But it could be that you just have a larger number of students applying who all know one another, and they talk about it [more often].”
Hoye noted that similar concerns are common and often resurface every few years at many universities with a law school. Contrary to speculation, Duke’s Law School admits a high percentage of Duke undergraduate applicants. Because the admission committee is more certain of the quality of the Duke undergraduate experience, Hoye said there is “a plus in the application processes” for Duke undergraduates.
“Every year, the admit rate of students who studied at Duke and are admitted is higher than the overall admit rate in the pool—by a little bit,” Hoye said, though he did not provide exact acceptance data. “It reflects the fact that we have great confidence in Duke undergraduates.”
The size of Duke’s Law School may be a limiting factor, however, on admission of Duke undergraduates, Hoye added.
“Among the top law schools, only two—Stanford and Cornell—are smaller than Duke,” he said. “We have to turn away and not admit quite a large amount of applicants who might be admitted to other schools just because we don’t have the capacity.”
Although admissions deans dispel the notion that Duke undergraduates have a harder time being accepted to Duke Law, Gerald Wilson, senior associate dean of Trinity College and pre-law adviser, said this has been a prevailing sentiment among Duke pre-law undergraduates for a long time.
“I have been here for 41 years, and it has been a rumor for 41 years—it is very untrue,” Wilson said.
Senior Zornitsa Petkova, who was recently accepted to the Law School, said it is a bit misleading to conclude that Duke’s Law School disfavors Duke undergraduate applicants. She said Duke undergraduates probably apply to Duke’s Law School in a larger volume because of their loyalty to the institution.
“I would apply to Duke even though Duke may not be my top school,” Petkova said. “If that’s the rationale behind people’s application to their own alma mater, then it would make sense for the acceptance rate to be lower because [the Law School] can’t just accept everyone who applies to their own alma mater.”
Petkova said she did not feel any particular advantage or disadvantage applying to Duke’s law school. She added, however, that there are resources available to Duke undergraduate applicants that are not available to other applicants because of proximity and accessibility to the Law School’s campus. Such resources may include on-campus tours, office hours with admissions officers and knowledge of how classrooms and courtrooms are set up. All of these factors may lead to a better understanding of the Law School for Duke undergraduates.
About a third of the total Duke students who apply to the Law School are outright accepted—but, within this third, many are likely to have applied to and potentially committed to other schools that are in Duke’s league, Wilson added. He said he encourages another third to take a “long-shot,” though this third is more likely to be outright rejected.
“However, for the middle [third of the applicants], many of them would have been outright rejected, but because they went to Duke, they were waitlisted,” he said. “And when Duke goes to its waitlist, they will take many students from other schools, but it does take a goodly number of Duke people off the waitlist.”
Similarly, the School of Medicine also admits a substantial number of Duke students, approximately 40 out of less than 200 total offers this year, Dr. Brenda Armstrong, director of admissions, wrote in an email Sunday. Applicants from Duke are accepted at higher rates compared to those from other peer institutions, include Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The average GPA and MCAT score—a 3.8 and 36, respectively—for accepted Duke students are comparable to those of admitted students from other top universities.
“The entering first-year medical class at Duke Med usually comprises from 20 to 25 percent Duke alums,” Daniel Scheirer, director of health professions advising, wrote in an email last Tuesday. “Duke students have an advantage at any medical school because of the rigor of their academic preparation and numerous formative experiences in their extracurricular life.”
Senior Kyle Davidson, who was accepted to the School of Medicine, said he thinks Duke’s medical school accepts more Duke undergraduates because its admissions team knows the caliber of Duke applicants.
“As a Duke student, I feel like they are better acquainted with me,” Davidson said. “It’s kind of like someone who goes to the same grocery store all the time because they know the people there, and they know exactly what kind of service they are going to get, as opposed to someone trying out random places—you know what you’re getting yourself into when you go with Duke.”
Senior Jordan Jacquez, despite being rejected by the School of Medicine, said he does not think it is harder for Duke undergraduates to gain acceptance to Duke’s medical school. He said he thought his rejection was contingent on his lack of research experience, not his status as a Duke undergraduate.
During his visit to the School of Medicine, Jacquez noticed that the undergraduate university most represented was Duke.
“I feel that almost every single Duke pre-med would apply to Duke, even though more of us end up going there, more of us applied for each cycle,” he said.
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