Duke is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. It’s a good fit for those students (with straight A’s and near-perfect test scores) who are looking to attend a school with top-notch academic programs and a booming social and sports scene. Duke’s acceptance rate dropped even lower last year and ended up somewhere around 6%.
Duke’s supplement did not change since last year, but we still wanted to take a fresh look. You’ll notice below that two of Duke’s supplements are optional. Duke’s acceptance rate is very low, so if you’re serious about attending, you need to answer all of the questions that apply to you, even the optional ones. Let’s take a look:
The following question is required for all 2021-22 applicants to Duke University:
Please share with us why you consider Duke a good match for you. Is there something in particular about Duke’s academic or other offerings that attract you? (200 words maximum)
Duke has very made intentional choices with their wording of this question. Take special notice when they say “a good match” and also their mention of “other offerings.” They want to know exactly where your interests intersect with Duke’s offerings, and they want you to cover both academic and extracurricular activities.
Strong responses to this prompt will include the following:
What you plan to major in at Duke, along with a story that explains why you’re interested in that major.
One or two upper-level classes that align well with your academic interests
A professor who you’d like to do research with
And an extracurricular activity, or a Duke-specific offerings, that you plan to join or pursue.
You should start out by deciding what you want to major in at Duke. Look through their programs and find something that is A) exciting to you and B) aligns well with the courses that you’ve done well in during high school. If you’re never taken a high-level English class and you say that you want to major in English, that won’t make much sense. In addition to declaring a major (in writing,) you need to tell a story that explains why you want to pursue, say, Chemistry. But it’s not enough to have simply done well in a course that is related to your major – you need to flesh out all of the links between you and your discipline of choice. After that, look through all of Duke’s course offerings in your intended field of study. You should choose two upper-level courses and explain why your background makes you a good fit for taking those courses. Go deeper than “I’ve always wanted to learn more about Irish Literature.” You should have at least some familiarity with the course matter that you choose, and don’t worry about choosing the classes that sound the hardest. As long as it’s not an introductory level course, everything is fair game – just make sure that you’re not grasping at straws to identify why you picked it. Follow this same advice for choosing a professor. Read through their biographies and choose the person who is doing research or teaching classes that are most related to your academic interests, and the more niche the better. Explain why you’d be a valuable addition to their team. Before you close things out, take a look at Duke’s student groups and organizations and then look back at your activities section. Your job is find something that aligns well with what you’ve already done and write about how your past experiences will help you contribute to the group or team. Once you have all of the information, massage it and don’t let it read like a laundry list of Duke’s offerings. Like we said before, approach this in a way that allows you to flesh out the links between you and Duke.
The following questions are optional for all 2021-22 applicants to Duke University:
Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. If you’d like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you’ve had that would help us understand you better, perhaps a community you belong to or your family or cultural background, we encourage you to do so here. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke. (250 words maximum)
Ah yes, the age-old diversity question. If you’re only going to take thing away from this blog post, it’s that you should go small. We will be approaching it like this: “When have you learned something from someone who is different than you?”
Community can be a big topic to broach and we’d like to think that the real people at Duke just want to hear a story about your openness to learn from others. Perhaps you’ve had a conversation with someone who has different views than you, or you had dinner with someone whose upbringing and culture is fairly different than yours. There’s no need to have changed your mind about anything, you just want to think of an experience you’ve had with someone that has taught you something.
Scene and story are everything here, so rather than writing a bunch of “background,” simply drop the reader into the scene. Dialogue is great! Take them through what happened and resist the urge to conclude your story with 50 words that detail what you learned. Let the story speak for itself.
Duke’s commitment to diversity and inclusion includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. If you would like to share with us more about your identity in these areas, you can do so here, or use any previous essay prompt you feel is appropriate. (250 words maximum)
If you are not a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, you should not be answering this question. Hard stop, not even if you consider yourself an ally. This space is reserved for members of the LGBTQIA+ community and that is all that we have to say about that.
The thing about safe spaces is that they don’t always feel safe. So even if this prompt applies to you, you don’t have to write anything. You really don’t. If you haven’t shared things with your family, you don’t need to share them here. With all of that being said, if you do want to share something with Duke about your sexual orientation or gender identity, this is your space to do so. We’re not going to tell you how to do it, instead simply write what you feel comfortable sharing.
Getting into Duke is no easy feat. And for a school with such a low acceptance rate, their supplement does not leave much room for creativity or self-expression. Our advice is to finish your common app essay and identify exactly what has already been expressed, and then use these questions to add depth to your application.
Need help? Get in touch with us here.