This hasn’t been an easy year for many of the most prestigious colleges in America — with the exception of Duke University! Across both admissions rounds, Duke received a record-setting 58,268 applications, resulting in the lowest overall acceptance rate ever recorded at the home of the Blue Devils. This newest crop of Regular Decision admits joins the 849 Early Decision admits who received the fantastic news of their admission this past December. 

Duke admissions officers are likely congratulating themselves for yet another record-setting year just as many of their elite college counterparts are mourning just the opposite: a year of turmoil and decreased interest. How do Duke’s admissions statistics bode for the fate of the troubled Ivy League? Read on to hear Ivy Coach’s take on this historical upset in higher education.

Duke University Acceptance Rate and Statistics (Class of 2029 – Class of 2018)

Before we get into the weeds of this most recent admissions cycle, let’s take a gander at over a decade of Duke admissions statistics as reported to The Common Data Set:

Duke University Class Year	Total Applicant Pool	Number of Applications Accepted	Acceptance Rate
Class of 2029	58,268	2,818	4.84%
Class of 2028	54,191	2,790	5.15%
Class of 2027	49,476	2,948	5.96%
Class of 2026	50,002	3,085	6.17%
Class of 2025	49,517	2,854	5.76%
Class of 2024	39,783	3,057	7.68%
Class of 2023	41,613	3,064	7.36%
Class of 2022	37,302	3,097	8.30%
Class of 2021	34,406	3,116	9.06%
Class of 2020	31,150	3,314	10.64%
Class of 2019	31,150	3,534	11.35%
Class of 2018	32,506	3,494	10.75%

Duke University Class of 2029 Statistics in a Historical Perspective

This was, by and large, the best year on record for Duke. The school that soon says farewell to Cooper Flagg received over 4,000 more applications than it did last year, resulting in an all-time low acceptance rate that complements the record-setting 12.8% acceptance rate for Early admits last December. 

Profile of Duke Admits to the Class of 2029

According to reporting by The Duke Chronicle, of those admitted in the Regular Decision round, 1,552 were accepted into the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and 401 to the Pratt School of Engineering. The gender ratio breaks down as follows: 51.3% are male, 48.7% are female, and a handful of unreported students identify as nonbinary. 

Beyond these sparse data points and a press release touting increased numbers of admits from North Carolina and South Carolina as the result of an application incentivization initiative to give more robust financial aid to admits from the Carolinas, we don’t know much else about the Class of 2029. Not the racial demographics, geographic makeup, or the proportion of Pell Grant recipients (which has gotten Duke in some hot water in years past for being lower than at other elite institutions!).

Is Duke Eclipsing the Ivy League?

In stark contrast to this triumphant showing by Duke, the Ivy League has uniformly seen lowered acceptance rates this year (among schools that have released the data!). Could it be that a new set of southern colleges — namely, Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory, and Rice — are ascending to fill the vacuum left by Ivy League schools that have been tormented by a couple of years of horrendous PR and backlashes of student speech and safety? It’s quite possible. 

In any event, we at Ivy Coach are certain that Duke scooped up many of the talented high schoolers who were turned off by the Ivy League this year. Well done, Duke!

Ivy Coach’s Application Assistance With The Duke Waitlist

If your child was recently waitlisted to the Duke Class of 2029, or you’d like to set up your child for future success by optimizing their odds of Duke admission in an upcoming admissions cycle, fill out our complimentary consultation form, and we’ll be in touch with an outline of our services. Ivy Coach’s own Bethany Hewett, a former Duke admissions officer, will be happy to let you in on all the secrets that make for a successful Duke application!