Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina. This part of North Carolina is often referred to as the Research Triangle due it being home to three major research universities, including UNC. Duke is a popular school, and it’s hard to get into. Last cycle, they reported a 7.4% acceptance rate. Duke is a great fit for students who care about academics but also want a robust social college experience.
The Duke supplement changed a little bit since last year, but we want to warn you about a common trap students might find themselves in with the Duke essays. There are four “optional” questions, and we typically say optional isn’t optional. However, one of the optional essays is about sexuality and gender identity – and if you don’t belong to the LGBTQ+ community, we think it’s best to steer clear. With that out of the way, let’s start breaking each essay down.
What is your sense of Duke as a university and a community, and why do you consider it a good match for you? If there's something in particular about our offerings that attracts you, feel free to share that as well. (250-word limit)*
It is essentially a Why Duke essay, but there’s a few things they hit on here to note. They want to know why you’re a *good match* to the university and the community. You have 200 words to build a multidimensional profile of yourself and pitch it to Duke. You want to compare your profile as a student to the ~vibe~ Duke has, and if you’re here you probably know what it is, but let’s discuss. Duke is a pretty typical work-hard, party-hard school. Sports (especially Basketball) are big at Duke, and school spirit is definitely a big part of campus too. But it’s also a super-selective school with a single-digit acceptance rate and a ton of top-notch programs, so keep that in mind as an applicant and while you write your essays.
Start with an origin story, why do you want to study what you want to study? Look at programs at Duke that interest you and that align with what you’ve done in high school, and think of what makes you interested in those things. If you’re interested in Computer Science, then call back to how good you felt after coding your own app for the first time, or how you became obsessed after a coding camp as a kid. Then declare your major, and next you’ll launch into why Duke is a good fit for you.
The best way to do that is by picking a few upper level classes (no intro classes, since those aren’t unique to Duke) that align with your interests within your major. If it’s Computer Science, then maybe it’s Computational Biology or “Mobile App development for programmers and entrepreneurs” which is the longest class name we’ve ever seen. Then pick a professor who’s doing research in your niche or that you’d like to mentor you and explain why you want to be on their team or work with them – get specific.
Next, and an important part based on the wording of the question, you need to talk about things outside of the classroom that you want to do. Include a club or organization, maybe a campus tradition. If you like basketball, talk about basketball – it’s huge there. Talk about the environment and the culture and how it will foster you. Wrap it up here and go through and edit, edit edit.
We want to emphasize that the following questions are optional. Feel free to answer them if you believe that doing so will add something meaningful that is not already shared elsewhere in your application. Four optional questions are available - a maximum of 2 can be selected. (250 words)
You’re doing both essays. No optional essays at a school with a 7.4% acceptance rate. Thankfully this year you have options.
We seek a diverse student body that embodies the wide range of human experience. In that context, we are interested in what you’d like to share about your lived experiences and how they’ve influenced how you think of yourself.
Okay, so this is b r o a d. Sooo broad. However, the key here is “diverse student body,” so it seems like they kind of repurposed their community and diversity essay from last year into this question. “Lived experience” is also kind of vague, and it seems as if they miiiight be mining for trauma stories. We don’t love that, and we believe you can get into college without exposing the worst moments of your life to strangers on an admissions panel.
We’re going to suggest going about this like a community essay. Community essays are a great place to talk about the communities you’re a part of, but at a smaller level than just “my faith” or “my race.” Try to avoid talking about something you’ve already covered anywhere in your application, so things like the soccer team or your community service group is off limits. Also, don’t be afraid to think small with this one. Your friends, your family, your neighbors. Maybe a group within a group – like the pickup basketball team you joined with people from temple, or a group of friends from AP Environmental Sciene that now go to city hall meetings to fight for better recycling policies. They’re also asking about experiences, so maybe there was a time you learned something new because of exposure you didn’t have before.
Biggest thing with this prompt is that you should tell it like a story, really set the scene. No “My community is important to me because they teach me things.” Try something like “It was blazing hot outside, and I thought I was going to pass out mowing the lawn,” instead. Bring us into the moment with you, and tell it like you’d tell a friend.
We believe there is benefit in sharing and sometimes questioning our beliefs or values; who do you agree with on the big important things, or who do you have your most interesting disagreements with? What are you agreeing or disagreeing about?
We advise thinking about this question as “what have I learned from someone who was different from me?” It can be easy to write about how all of you and your friends agree on some hot button issue, but we advise staying away from anything in the news or on how your circle has homogenous opinions. This is also a little too similar to the first question in theme, so maybe don’t pick both of them.
Instead, think of a time you had a belief challenged – and more importantly – changed. Tell it like a story, bring us into the conversation or experience. Don’t say things like “this experience was important because…” or anything that tells them explicitly how you felt, because it’s much more powerful to show them through the narrative.
What has been your best academic experience in the last two years, and what made it so good?
We think this is a great one if you’re a student who has a variety of interests. Maybe you’re applying as a History major but you’re like, deep into AP Studio Art and have submitted works to galleries or something awesome like that. Maybe you’re an English Lit kind of person who learned to code in your free time. Or maybe you’re someone who generally doesn’t excel at math and you just absolutely crushed a math exam and it made you super happy to see your hard work come to fruition. Use this one to showcase an outside academic interest or talent you have. And as always (and you might be sick of us by now), tell a story. It’s more interesting to share how the moment felt than to tell us how cool it felt.
Duke’s commitment to diversity and inclusion includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. If you’d like to share with us more about your identity in this context, feel free to do so here.
If you’re not LGBTQ+, don’t answer this one. It is wildly inappropriate and terrible to read if you start talking about what it’s like to be straight or how you’re just an awesome ally. Also, don’t feel like you have to share this part of yourself with them. Not everyone is comfortable sharing their identities and we’re absolutely okay with you skipping this one if it doesn’t feel right. We’re glad they made this an option within the optional questions – we think the way it was structured before made some students feel like they had to come out to Duke in order to get in.
Duke’s a hard school to get into, and hopefully this will help guide you through the process of writing their supplemental essays. Make sure to edit each one, and don’t be afraid to have friends and family edit for you. You’ve got this.
If you’re applying to Duke and need help with your essays, contact us today.