Duke University

About 30% of undergraduate men and about 40% of undergraduate women at Duke are members of fraternities and sororities. More than 400 student clubs and organizations operate on Duke's campus. More than 75 percent of Duke students pursue service-learning opportunities in Durham and around the world through DukeEngage and other programs that advance the university's mission of "knowledge in service to society." Duke athletics, particularly men's basketball, traditionally serves as a significant component of student life.

Duke University has 12 schools and institutes, three of which host undergraduate programs: Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Pratt School of Engineering, and Duke Kunshan University . Duke offers 46 arts and sciences majors, four engineering majors, 52 minors (including two in engineering) and Program II, which allows students to design their own interdisciplinary major in arts & sciences, and IDEAS, which allows students to design their own engineering major. Twenty-four certificate programs also are available.

Admission to Duke is defined by U.S. News & World Report as "most selective." Duke received nearly 39,800 applications for the Class of 2024, with an overall acceptance rate of 7.7% . Class of 2022 had an ACT range of 33-35 and an SAT range of 1490–1560.

From 2001 to 2011, Duke has had the sixth highest number of Fulbright, Rhodes, Truman, and Goldwater scholarships in the nation among private universities.

Throughout the school's history, Duke researchers have made breakthroughs, including the biomedical engineering department's development of the world's first real-time, three-dimensional ultrasound diagnostic system and the first engineered blood vessels and stents.

The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index ranked Duke's faculty first in the nation in the fields of Oncology and Cancer Biology, Biomedical Engineering and Applied Economics. The Public Policy, Statistics, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Medicine and Molecular Genetics departments (among others) all ranked in the top five. Several other departments including Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Nursing ranked in the top ten in 2016, The Washington Post ranked Duke 7th overall based on the accumulated weighted average of the rankings from U.S. News & World Report, Washington Monthly, Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education, Times Higher Education (global), Money and Forbes

In a 2016 study by Forbes, Duke ranked 11th among universities in the United States that have produced billionaires and 1st among universities in the Sout

In 2020, Duke was ranked 22nd in the world by U.S. News & World Report and 20th in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

The University practices need-blind admissions and meets 100% of admitted students' demonstrated need. About 50 percent of all Duke students receive some form of financial aid, which includes need-based aid, athletic aid, and merit aid. The average need-based grant for the 2018–19 academic year was $53,255. In 2020, a study by the Chronicle of Higher Education ranked Duke first on its list of "Colleges That Are the Most Generous to the Financially Neediest Students".Roughly 60 merit-based full tuition scholarships are offered, including the Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholarship awarded for academic excellence, the Benjamin N. Duke Scholarship awarded for community service, and the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program, a joint scholarship and leadership development program granting full student privileges at both Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. Other scholarships are geared toward students in North Carolina, African-American students, children of alumni, and high-achieving students requiring financial aid.