Just Released: Duke’s Acceptance Rate

See highlights from Duke’s official announcement below:

Duke admitted 2,148 high school seniors to the Class of 2027 through its Regular Decision admissions cycle, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag.

There were 44,589 Regular Decision applicants, bringing the acceptance rate for Regular Decision to 4.8%. For the Class of 2026, the Regular Decision acceptance rate was 4.6%.

This is an increase from the Class of 2025’s Regular Decision acceptance rate of 4.3%, but remains lower than the Class of 2024’s 6%.

“Everyone reading applications this year was struck by the academic quality of the applicant pool, but even more so by the students’ commitment to their classmates and their communities,” Guttentag said.

Of particular note to admissions officers was students’ engagement in community service and in acts of kindness to one another, according to Guttentag.

In December, Duke admitted 800 students to the Class of 2027 through its Early Decision round from a pool of 4,880 applicants, which marked the second-largest Early Decision applicant pool in University history, according to Guttentag. The Early Decision acceptance rate was the lowest in history at 16.5%.

This brings the University’s overall acceptance rate this year to 6%, the second lowest in Duke’s history.

TTA Takeaway: It goes without saying that Duke’s accepted students have strong scores and grades. What Duke emphasizes instead is the kindness, community engagement, and diversity of its incoming class. Once students are in range of Duke, pursuing community activism and showing civic engagement will make them much more competitive applicants.