Duke University is a popular private research university in Durham, North Carolina. It is also home to the Pratt School of Engineering. While Duke doesn’t publish a Pratt-specific acceptance rate, it is an elite school that is extremely hard to get into.
That is because Duke is always competitive to get into. Last year, their acceptance rate was just 6.7%. And engineering majors are among the most popular majors offered by Duke. Honestly, it is not just at Duke; so many people want to study engineering, so if you are serious about studying engineering at an elite university like Duke, you need to be an outstanding candidate. Thankfully, we are here to break down the steps you need to take to be a competitive Pratt candidate.
Get the Grades
You need perfect or near-perfect grades to get into Duke. It isn’t all you need, but it is a necessary first step. It might sound harsh, but if you don’t have nearly a 4.0 unweighted GPA, Pratt might simply not be the school for you. When coming from schools that rank, over 92% of applicants were from the top 10% of their high school graduating class. This means most applicants not only have impressive grades but also stellar transcripts. To keep up, your transcript should be packed with Honors, IB, AP, Accelerated, and/or Dual Enrollment courses. For engineers, the bare minimum is taking the hardest math and science classes available to you. However, we recommend taking as many hard classes as possible while still maintaining a competitive GPA.
While Duke is currently test-optional, they might change that soon. They have only announced that the policy will go through the 2025-2026 cycle and not whether they will extend it. Even if they do, good scores will help your application, especially in STEM fields like engineering. Last year, around 77% of applicants submitted scores. Their 50th percentile was either a 1550 on the SAT or a 35 on the ACT. These are impressive scores, and you should shoot for similar (or ideally better) if you are a serious candidate.
Build a Niche
Pratt offers 6 majors and 4 minors. It should be clear from your resume which you will likely pursue. To do this, you need to build a strong academic niche. An academic niche is really just clear and substantiated academic interests. You need to explore your academic interests and pursue them in strategic ways if you hope to be a strong Pratt applicant.
Courses and Reading
A great first step in building your academic niche is just learning as much as you can about your intended field. We recommend using books and online courses as an initial step. You can supplement your reading list with podcasts, scientific journals, tech blogs, etc., but there needs to be books on it. This will help if you decide to also apply to Columbia and Stanford—they ask about your reading list in their supplement.
Online classes are another great resource to start building a history of academic curiosity. Many universities offer pre-taped (often free) courses through third parties like Coursera. You can also look for university summer programs (either in person or online) or local community college courses. No matter how you do it, signing up for some engineering-related courses outside of your regular class day is an excellent way of showing commitment to your academic interests.
School Extracurriculars
To be a Pratt-level candidate, you need to be active in your school community. You must join (and lead) clubs and activities, but you need do it strategically. Your application needs to tell a story about what you are passionate about, and your clubs should build on/support your academic interests. Popular clubs for hopeful engineers include robotics teams, science Olympiads, mathletes, STEM tutoring clubs, solar car teams, computer science societies, etc., depending on your specific niche. If your school doesn’t offer STEM-based clubs (or the right STEM-based clubs for you), take some initiative and ask about starting your own.
But be warned, just adding your name to a sign-up sheet or coming one hour a week as a member isn’t enough for Pratt. You need to commit time and effort to the activities that matter most to you. Ideally, you also have to take on leadership roles and responsibilities in your clubs. Push yourself in your activities just like you do in your classes. Most importantly, you have to build out the clubs you join so that they are more robust than how they started.
Out of School Extracurriculars
We love students who are involved in out-of-school extracurriculars all year long. However, you need to make sure your summers are especially helpful to build a strong resume. We often work with even freshmen to ensure they have strategic summer plans. While there are a lot of great opportunities for impactful summers, most Prat-level applicants will have a mix of academic programs, internships, and research that all connect to their academic niche on their resume. Making a good summer plan can be tricky. If you need help strategizing your summers, we have you covered! Contact us today!
Build Something Cool
Engineering takes hands-on skills. You can show those off by building something you would be proud to tell Pratt about. The sky is really the limit here. We have worked with students who have built drones, computers, solar power systems, and much more. Again, whatever you build needs to align with your intended major. Show off the skills that you have, or even better, challenge yourself to learn some new ones to pull the project off. We want to see you build something impressive.
Apply Early
While Duke’s overall acceptance rate was around 6.7% last year, their ED rate was significantly higher. Their early decision acceptance rate was 19.7%. This also means that their regular decision rate is lower than 6.7%. The TLDR here is that for qualified candidates, your best chance at getting into Pratt is during the early decision round. If you are a serious applicant, you need to at least consider applying early. Any strategic application plan includes ED/EA schools. Seniors, if you are on the fence, you need to make some decisions now and start working on your apps. Trust us, deadlines will come faster than you think!
It is hard to get into Pratt. Contact us today.