Duke is a prestigious private research university with a stellar academic reputation and an iconic athletic tradition that makes being a student there, well, a ton of fun. Just over 6,500 undergraduate students call Duke home, and the overall student body is well over 17,000. The top five majors across all undergraduates are Computer Science, Economics, Biology, Public Policy, and Psychology. Based in Durham, North Carolina, Duke is popular with students across the United States and internationally, but especially students from NC, New York, Florida, California, and Texas. There are two undergraduate colleges, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Pratt School of Engineering. Our kids LOVE Duke, and we’re really good at getting them in. Most recently, the acceptance rate was 3.3%.
Duke receives nearly 55,000 applications for first-year admission, and only accepts about 1,700 students. The overall acceptance rate in 2025 dropped from is 5.4% to 3.3%, with the rate of admission being continuing to be higher for students who apply Early Decision (13% for Class of 2028) than those who apply Regular Decision (a miniscule 4.4% for the Class of 2028). For students considering mounting a campaign for admission to Duke, it’s useful to know that submitting test scores is, ostensibly, optional in the 2025-2026 application cycle. However, strong applicants submit strong scores. For the SAT, this means a score above 1510. If you are working on the ACT, you should be aiming for a 34+.
In this post, we’re going to break down a crucial piece of your application to Duke that isn’t quantitative: the essays. As part of the Duke application, they invite you to share a bit of yourself. How you approach this is important, so pay attention.
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The Duke supplement is pretty straightforward — in format, at least. There are two essays, and some options for the second one. Below, we’ll break down each and help guide you towards your best choice where you have the opportunity to pick.
Remember that the most important thing is to answer the question, but the second most important thing is to be yourself. Trying to be who you think Duke “wants” based on friend’s admissions experiences or what you have heard online is a losing game. Duke doesn’t want any one type of student, and there is no secret formula beyond strong grades and scores, an authentic representation of yourself, a passion for what Duke can offer you, and a vision for what you can bring to Duke.
When we work with students on a Duke application, we spend most of our time dialing in the story they are going to tell not because it is what works (secret: there is no perfect student who always gets in), but because it is truly them — and that is actually what Duke wants to see.
The following question is required for all first-year applicants to Duke University during the 2025-26 application cycle. (250 word limit)
What is your impression of Duke as a university and community, and why do you believe it is a good match for your goals, values, and interests? If there is something specific that attracts you to our academic offerings in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences or the Pratt School of Engineering, or to our co-curricular opportunities, feel free to include that too.
Remember how we were just saying how important it is to represent yourself honestly, aligning your values, passions, and future with what Duke can offer? This question is the perfect encapsulation of that. They want to know what you see in Duke, and why it matters to you to attend. This is not, for the record, an opportunity to compliment their landscaping nor wax poetic about their student hang-out spots. Architecture is, indeed, off the table — even if it is something that you want to study as part of an Art History major.
Before you start writing a response to this prompt, you need to get your research in order so that you can speak to specifics. This means finding:
The name of your prospective major and, if applicable, concentration within the major
A professor you hope to study under and why
An academic program you want to be part of (like working in a specific lab or with a specific research project, for example)
Oh, and a fun thing.
One of the cool things about Duke is that the culture is strong on community fun, and that only happens because they look for applicants that will maintain and add to the community. If all you do is learn that is cool, but it’s not Duke. So, it’s important here to find something in that is authentic to you and about enjoyment. This could be a club that is connected to something you are leading in high school, a student initiative that connects to a passion, or anything of the like that is clearly relevant to what you already prioritize today. Simply being a sports spectator isn’t actively engaged enough, but you could want to join the Blue Crew, the club dedicated to supporting varsity women’s sports if you lead the spirit club at your high school.
Once you have all your research, it’s time to pull it together. It needs to be more than a list of what you like about Duke, so you will want to start with a story and let the narrative be the hook. A hook isn’t how much you loved the tour when you visited, but it could be a specific experience during a visit to campus, a conversation with a current student, an experience learning from a professor, or a learning experience you’ve had totally unrelated to Duke ‘officially’ but also totally related to Duke because the way in which you were learning, collaborating, or engaging helped you realize that Duke is your ideal community.
From that story intro, which should be 150 words or less, you’ll roll out all the awesome research you did, spotlighting your genuine interest in and passion for the learning environment and community that Duke offers.
Close with a final thought about something you’re really excited for at Duke. This should be fun, community-based, and very specific to Duke.
We want to emphasize that the following questions are optional. We invite you to answer one of the four if you believe that doing so will add something meaningful that is not already addressed elsewhere in your application. (250 word limit)
Not optional.
Before we break down the prompts, let us repeat what we just said for the folks in the back: optional is not optional if you want to get in. They say that these are optional because they technically are. Making something optional boosts the number of applications they will receive. However, and for the third time, this is not optional if you actually want to get in.
You also need to really internalize the last bit of the set-up: “something meaningful that is not already addressed elsewhere in your application.” Redundancy is not your friend. Stating the same thing, or sharing the same story, more than once does not effectively underline it. It becomes one-note and boring. So, whatever you write here should be new information told in a new way. Now, let’s break down each prompt so that you can pick your best fit.
And remember, you only need to pick one to respond to.
We believe a wide range of viewpoints and experiences is essential to maintaining Duke’s vibrant living and learning community. Please share anything in this context that might help us better understand you and your potential contributions to Duke.
This question is Duke’s way of asking about things that they aren’t technically allowed to ask about explicitly. Namely, race. But also, socioeconomics and different family and learning experiences. So, if you pick this prompt, the key is to share one piece of what makes you, well, you. Don’t try to pack a bunch of facts about you into one response. Instead, focus on one specific thing. For example, maybe you’ve grown up in a super small town with a super small school. That’s meant fewer choices for advanced courses and almost no sports teams, but it’s also meant an extremely tightknit community where you’ve known your teachers most of your life and you can all lean on each other in challenging times. If this was your story, we’d help you craft a story that shows how you made the most of the opportunities you had access to, found new and novel ones where they didn’t already exist, and supported those around you with friendship and care regardless of background or belief system.
Meaningful dialogue often involves respectful disagreement. Provide an example of a difference of opinion you’ve had with someone you care about. What did you learn from it?
Friends, we are experts on this. The New York Times just quoted us on this so heed our advice.
This has become a very popular prompt over the last few years, with many top schools integrating something like it into their supplements. It’s the hot new it girl question. It’s also a bit of a trap if you aren’t careful.
It is super easy for a response to this prompt to come off as self-important, or like you think that you are better than the person (or people) you are disagreeing with. And it’s not really your fault, either. When you set up an argument where you think or know you are right, it’s easy for it to seem like you think the other person is stupid. For example, arguing with your flat-earther uncle about why he doesn’t see a curve on the horizon. You may not be calling him dumb, but it could easily feel that way, undercutting the whole “respectful” part of the prompt.
If you want to pick this prompt, we advise going with a situation where you were in the wrong, and you learned something through that experience. We’re reminded of a story where a student called out her family member for using the term “rule of thumb,” which she had been told by a teacher referred to an old law that permitted corporal punishment (read: beatings) as long as stick was narrower than one’s thumb. When her family member corrected her and shared that this was a myth created and spread online, she felt a massive amount of multi-layered shame. Working through this was a huge learning experience for her, not just about communication but also not taking new information as fact unless you dig into it yourself beyond the top hit on a web search engine.
But, we advise not choosing this question. The next one is so much better and has less pitfalls.
What’s the last thing that you’ve been really excited about?
This prompt is awesome if you lean into it HARD. We love when our students answer this prompt with a story that immerses the reader into what they are excited about, focusing on a small detail of a bigger theme.
For example, if you are really into biology and especially microbes, write about looking through a microscope at one particular microbe. Describe it in ridiculous detail that makes your enthusiasm for the subject unassailable. Then, zoom out only slightly to encompass the breadth of your interest, but don’t spend time mapping this onto Duke. Instead, really focus on the passion and what it is about it that sparks up your brain.
Duke recently launched an initiative “to bring together Duke experts across all disciplines who are advancing AI research, addressing the most pressing ethical challenges posed by AI, and shaping the future of AI in the classroom.” Tell us about a situation when you would or would not choose to use AI (when possible and permitted). What shapes your thinking?
This is an interesting prompt, but we’re nervous that the students who pick it will be precisely the students who shouldn’t if they want to stand out on their application to Duke. If you are a STEM-heavy student interested in the hard sciences or computer science, you should probably not pick this prompt. Why? Because even if you have a lot to say it’ll be repeating themes elsewhere in your application. They will see robotics club and AP computer science and engineering club and know that you probably think about AI a lot these days.
Instead of doubling down on this supplement, we want to introduce something new. This is why the best students for this prompt are the less expected ones. It’s the writers, the history buffs, and the humanities nerds who can truly strengthen their application by picking this prompt, because you can offer a perspective that brings in another field and write about how it converges with (or conflicts with) the use of AI tools.
If you decide to take this route, you need to give one very specific real or hypothetical example (although real is ideal), and break it down through the lens of your real world experiences. What is it like when you know half of your class didn’t really do their homework? Or, maybe, how did AI unlock unexpected perspectives on a humanities concept?
We love that Duke gives you options to shine your brightest. The key is to pick the one that is best for you — and that isn’t always the one that jumps out right from the start. When we work with students, we consider the whole package of their application to craft supplements that strengthen their chances of admission.
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