Duke Offers Admission to 3,679 Applicants for Class of 2008

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University mailed acceptance letters on Wednesday to 3,179 top high school seniors from every state and dozens of nations vying for admission to the Class of 2008.

For the second year, nervous applicants who couldn't wait for the mail were able to view their admissions decisions online. The information is available through a secure Web site, beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Wednesday's mailing brings the university's total offers of admission to 3,679 students, including 500 early-decision applicants accepted in December. The university is expecting 1,602 of the accepted students to enroll this fall.

"This was an especially challenging year for applicants to Duke," said Christoph Guttentag, director of undergraduate admissions. "We were fortunate to receive the second-highest number of applications in Duke's history, and the students' academic and extracurricular accomplishments were outstanding.

"One of the difficult parts of making admissions decisions on a pool of this size and scope is that we end up denying admission to students who we would have easily admitted just a few years ago."

For example, he said, Duke admitted only 42 percent of the nearly 1,500 valedictorians who applied for admission this year. Also, close to 1,000 applicants this year were ranked in the top 10 in their class and had scored 1500 or higher on the SAT; Duke admitted about two-thirds of those students.

"While we won't know until May just who will be enrolling at Duke, I know that this will be an entering class that will exemplify what we seek for Duke -- students who have talents in many areas, who are strongly committed to their communities and who can't wait to take advantage of what Duke can offer them," Guttentag said.

This year, Duke's Undergraduate Admissions Office received 16,702 applications, nearly the same as last year's record of 16,719. The university admitted 22 percent of this year's applicants.

"When we are finished with the process, which I expect will include admitting some students from the waiting list, the admit percentage will rise somewhat, but I expect not above 23 percent," Guttentag said.

Other records broken this year include the total number of applicants to the Pratt School of Engineering (2,925) and total number of applicants in most minority racial groups, including African Americans (1,685), Asians/Asian Americans (3,529) and Latinos (977).

"We've also had a record number of international applicants -- 1,435. The previous record was 1,354, set last year," Guttentag said. "One key reason for the continuing increase is the university's extension of its need-based financial aid program, which has been offered to international students for the past two years. We also continue to recruit actively overseas."

North Carolina remains the top state for admitted students, with 502 -- up significantly over the number admitted in the past three years. Other top states include Florida (330) and New York (309).

A considerable number of applicants apply for financial aid. Duke invests more than $34 million in undergraduate financial aid each year, and about 40 percent of Duke undergraduates receive an average of $19,500 in need-based financial aid from the university.

Duke admits students without regard to their ability to pay, and the university meets the demonstrated financial need for all admitted U.S. citizens and permanent residents and a portion of international students.