Skip to main content

More than 5,500 Duke Degrees to be Awarded at Sunday's Commencement

Apple CEO Tim Cook will address graduates

Students proceed through Wallace Wade Stadium during the 2017 commencement ceremony.
Students proceed through Wallace Wade Stadium during the 2017 commencement ceremony.

Duke University will award more than 5,500 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees during its annual commencement ceremony Sunday, May 13.

Duke President Vincent E. Price will preside over the 9 a.m. ceremony at Wallace Wade Stadium, and Apple CEO Tim Cook will deliver the commencement address. The ceremony will be Price’s first as president; he succeeded Richard Brodhead last summer.

Commencement is open to the public and Duke will stream the event live on the university’s YouTube channel.

Twitter users can follow commencement and contribute to the conversation using the hashtag #Duke2018.

Cook earned his MBA in 1988 from Duke, where he was a Fuqua Scholar, an honor given to students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their class. He received a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University in 1982.

Cook has been a member of the Duke Board of Trustees since 2015. He has also spoken with students at Fuqua, including a talk where he discussed what he learned at the school that has helped him in the business world.

Senior Deeksha Malhotra, a native of Singapore living in Atlanta, will deliver the student commencement address. A neuroscience major, Malhotra’s experiences at Duke have run the gamut from being a barista to working in a neuroscience lab that will lead to a publication to interning at a start-up that provides online medical information. (Read more stories about Duke seniors here)

Duke will also award six honorary degrees at commencement this year. This year’s recipients are Nigerian-born writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra; former Durham Mayor William Bell; Phil Freelon, lead architect for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; Dr. William Kaelin, professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School; and Russell M. Robinson II, attorney, community leader and philanthropist.

In addition to Sunday’s ceremony, Duke’s graduation weekend is filled with special events held by individual schools, departments and programs. About 13,000 guests are expected to attend the main commencement exercise, according to Duke’s Office of Special Events and University Ceremonies, which oversees graduation weekend planning.

There is ample general parking close to Wallace Wade Stadium. The Blue Zone lots are best for those traveling to campus via Duke University Road. Attendees coming from Highway 751 will find easiest parking in the Science Drive Garage, and those coming to campus via Towerview Road will want to park in Parking Garage IV. A parking map is available here.

Shuttle buses will run from the Marriott Residence Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Washington Duke Inn and the Millennium Hotel. More information is available here.

Other ceremonies include:

-- At 5 p.m. Friday, David Snow, chairman and chief executive officer of Cedar Gate Technologies, will address graduates of The Fuqua School of Business’ Master of Management Studies: Foundations of Business class of 2018, as well as the very first graduates of Fuqua’s Master in Quantitative Management: Business Analytics, in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The event is not open to the public but will be livestreamed on Fuqua’s YouTube channel.

-- At 7 p.m. Friday, School of Medicine Dean Mary Klotman will speak and graduates will repeat the Hippocratic Oath, be hooded as MDs and receive their diplomas at Duke Chapel. It is not open to the public but will be livestreamed on the Duke Chapel website.

-- At 9 a.m. Saturday, Kevin Plank, founder, chairman and CEO of Under Armour, will address graduates of The Fuqua School of Business’ Weekend Executive MBA, Cross Continent MBA, and Global Executive MBA Classes of 2017 in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The event is not open to the public but will be livestreamed on Fuqua’s YouTube channel.

-- At 9 a.m. Saturday, conservationist Mamie Parker, the first African-American to head a regional agency at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will address Master of Environmental Management, Master of Forestry and doctoral graduates of the Nicholas School of the Environment at the Chemistry Lot on Circuit Drive. The event is not open to the public.

-- At 1 p.m. Saturday, Kevin Plank, founder, chairman and CEO of Under Armour, will address graduates of The Fuqua School of Business’ Daytime MBA Class of 2018 as well as graduates of Fuqua’s Ph.D. program, in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The event is not open to the public but will be livestreamed on Fuqua’s YouTube channel. 

-- At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, The Graduate School will hold its Ph.D. Hooding Ceremony at the Durham Convention Center. Mimi A.R. Koehl, a 1976 graduate, will be honored as the recipient of the school's Distinguished Alumni Award and will address the graduating Ph.D. students. The event is not open to the public but will be livestreamed on The Graduate School's YouTube channel.

-- At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Michael Sorrell JD ’94, MPP '90, president of Paul Quinn College, will address graduating students of Duke University School of Law in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The event is not open to the public but video will be available on Duke Law’s YouTube channel.

-- At 6:30 p.m. Saturday, the Rev. Dr. William Turner Jr., James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor of the Practice of Preaching at Duke Divinity School, will preach at the school’s 92nd Baccalaureate Service in Duke Chapel. The event, which includes a service of investiture in which graduating students receive their academic hoods, is open to the public. It will be webcast live on the Duke Chapel website.

-- At 5 p.m., Sunday, School of Nursing Ph.D. graduate Ethan Cicero will address graduates of The School of Nursing Class of 2018 at Duke Chapel. The event is not open to the public but will be livestreamed on the Duke Chapel YouTube channel.

-- At 5 p.m. Friday, May 18, Tom Zhu, general manager of Tesla in China, will address 2018 graduates of The Fuqua School of Business’ Master in Management Studies: Duke Kunshan University, on the Duke Kunshan campus.

Degrees to be conferred:

Duke will award degrees to about 1,840 undergraduates and 3,689 graduate and professional students who finished their course work in September or December 2017 or this spring.

Among undergraduates receiving their degrees Sunday, 297 are from North Carolina.

The estimated degree breakdowns for the graduates are as follows:

Undergraduate degrees:

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences -- B.A. 715; B.S. 699.

Pratt School of Engineering -- B.S.E. 288.

Nursing -- B.S.N. 138.

Graduate and professional degrees:

Duke Divinity School -- M.Div. 119; Th.M. 9; M.T.S. 36; M.A.C.S. 3; M.A.C.P. 10; Th.D. 11; D.Min. 16.

Fuqua School of Business -- MBA 687; MSQM 140; M.M.S. -- 199; (Includes Duke Kunshan campus)

Graduate School -- M.A. 212; M.S. 290; M.F.A. 12; M.A.T. 14; Ph.D. 388.

School of Law -- J.D. 220; LL.M. 155; S.J.D. 2.

Nicholas School of the Environment -- M.E.M. 129; M.F. 3.

Pratt School of Engineering -- M.Eng.M. 159; M.Eng. 46.

Sanford School of Public Policy -- M.I.D.P. 41; M.P.P. 64.

School of Medicine -- M.D. 109; M.H.S. 99; M.H.S.-CR 31; D.P.T. 74; MBS 44; MMCI 34; M.B.S.T. 27.

School of Nursing -- M.S.N. 227; D.N.P. 78.

For more information on Duke's commencement weekend, go to https://commencement.duke.edu/.