Duke admitted 1,984 high school seniors to the Class of 2028 through its Regular Decision admissions cycle, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag.
There were a record 47,951 Regular Decision applicants, bringing the acceptance rate for Regular Decision to a record low 4.1%, down from 4.8% last year.
In December, Duke admitted 806 students to the Class of 2028 following a record number of 6,240 applications in its Early Decision round. The Early Decision acceptance rate was a record low 12.9%.
This brings the University’s overall acceptance rate this year to 5.1%, also a record low.
Of those admitted in the Regular Decision round, 1,592 were accepted into Trinity College, while the other 392 were admitted to the Pratt School of Engineering.
More students from North and South Carolina applied to the Class of 2028 than in recent admissions cycles. Guttentag attributed the increase to the Carolinas Financial Aid Initiative, which provides full tuition scholarships to students from North and South Carolina with family incomes under $150,000.
“In general, this cycle was both challenging and exciting,” Guttentag wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “It was a year of multiple changes, and we were motivated to build on the success we had last year in attracting and admitting a higher percentage of students eligible for Pell grants."
This year’s application cycle is the first that is required to abide by the June Supreme Court decision, which ruled that considering race as an independent factor when making admissions decisions is unconstitutional. It is the fourth where undergraduate admissions are test-optional, a policy implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic that some other universities have abandoned.
This cycle was also the first to reflect Duke’s recent changes to its internal admissions review process, opting to no longer give essays and standardized testing scores numerical ratings. Essays, though still considered in the process, no longer received a score due to the rise in the use of generative artificial intelligence and college admissions consultants.
“We’ll also be more active in recruiting admitted students this year, thanks in part to the great participation of the Office of Undergraduate Education and the Office of Student Affairs,” Guttentag wrote. “Their participation in recruitment will be critical in helping admitted students better understand the breadth of opportunities Duke offers its undergraduates.”
Admissions decisions will be released 7 p.m. on March 28.
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Jazper Lu is a Trinity junior and managing editor of The Chronicle's 119th volume.
Mia Penner is a Trinity sophomore and an editor-at-large of The Chronicle's 119th volume.