Duke University in Durham, North Carolina is one of the leading universities in the country, and is home to 6,542 undergraduates and just under 17,000 students total. The college is iconic for offering an outstanding education in a world-class community with a vaunted athletic and social culture. They are passionate about community in the classroom and outside of it, and they think of college as “a verb.” The college experience is something they want their students to be active players in. They look for students who want to be part of that. They want to admit students who intend on being active players in creating this community they treasure so much.
The most popular majors are computer science, economics, biology, public policy, and psychology, and the proof of the alchemy Duke offers is in the pudding. People who graduate from Duke go on to change the world, to push their fields forward, and to reject arbitrary boundaries. Alumni include actor and doctor Ken Jeong and Paul Farmer, who was a nonprofit leader and also a doctor. Both looked beyond the typical job definitions and confines to create lives bigger than any one major or career path can chart. The seeds of that kind of thinking are exactly what Duke is looking for in compelling applicants.
Lots of students want in. In 2024, Duke accepted a record low percentage of regular decision applicants with a mere 4.1% acceptance rate for the class of 2028. The overall acceptance rate for the class of 2028 was 5.1%, meaning that apply early offered only a slim advantage for the average applicant (i.e., not a recruited athlete).
In this post, we’ll break down how you should be spending your summers to increase your chances of getting into Duke.
If you want more than a blog post, send us an email. We help students craft compelling acceptance-winning application strategies geared towards their dream schools.
What does Duke want to see from your summer?
There are three things that Duke wants to see from your summer, and they are pretty simple. They want to see you doing more of what you love. They want to see you matching that passion with academic excellence outside of the standard course schedule. And they want to see you making good choices. Let’s dig deeper into all three.
Emphasize Your Interests
The first thing that Duke wants to see is that you pursue what you care about and are interested in outside of the classroom structure and beyond the boundaries of the school year. If there is a club you are particularly committed to at school, you should try to spend your summer doing something that grows and expands beyond that. For example, if you are really into a youth mentorship program, maybe there is a summer version you can be part of? Or a partner organization with summer programs? Or even a summer camp you can work at — either paid or volunteer.
If you are really into a particular sport, but aren’t aiming for recruitment to a collegiate team, we don’t recommend spending all your time during the summer playing that sport competitively (unless that’s the only time the sport is played, but we can’t imagine what kind of sport that would cover). However, we would recommend coaching that sport for a Special Olympics program, volunteering for a youth development league, or working for an elite program as a coach or referee/umpire/line judge.
If you see a trend here, we highly recommend emphasizing your interests in a way that could be described as “work.” We believe strongly that getting a job the summer of your sophomore or junior year that is related in some way — even loosely — to what you care about makes your application stand out. If you are a prospective psychology major, get a job as a restaurant server or at a country club. If you’re interested in communications and marketing, aim for an internship at a marketing firm or a seasonal retail position. Working these types of jobs, even just for the weeks of summer, will clarify your interests and strengthen your college applications.
Augment Your Academics
The next thing we recommend is augmenting your academics with courses, programs, internships, and/or opportunities that build directly on your academic interests. These things should, when paired with your transcript, make it even clearer what you care about.
One strong option is to take courses at Duke through one of their summer programs. They’d love to see you on campus because it shows you are focused on them.
The Duke Pre-College Program offers students in 6th through 11th grades the opportunity to dig deep into their academic interests in a university setting. More than 1,100 students take part in the program and, in 2024, they have access to 52 different courses in engineering, humanities, mathematics, science, social sciences, and technology. Students came from 42 states and 23 countries in 2023, and the courses are capped at 20 students. The Duke Pre-College Program has online and residential options, and there’s even a commuter option for local students who want to take courses in-person without staying on campus.
There is also a program in Beaufort, North Caroline with the Duke University Marine Lab that is open to middle school and high school students, and six-week-long for-credit courses that are open to 10th and 11th-grade students who want to collect some college credits early.
In addition to Duke’s own programs, there are summer opportunities run by outside organizations that are hosted at Duke. The summer program by the NSLC, for example, offers tracks with a career-preparation focus such as Business & Entrepreneurship, Engineering, Medicine & Health Care, and Sports Management. These programs give you the experience of being at Duke, and are still helpful for your application, but aren’t as helpful as doing the Duke-run programs. If you want to do a program at Duke that isn’t Duke run, we recommend layering it on top of an online pre-college course.
Everything isn’t all about Duke, but if Duke is your top-choice we highly recommend prioritizing it during your summer.
Have Fun, But Not Too Much
Summers are for fun, right? That’s true, and we aren’t trying to fill your whole summer with classes and jobs and internships (even though those can be super fun!). You should also have more classically recognized versions of fun. Go swim in a lake, learn how to drive and get lost on a dirt road, go to a music festival, or just hang out somewhere with grass. Have fun, but be smart while doing it. We live in a time where bad — or even mildly questionable — decisions have a way of leaking out into the world. We recommend our students make all social media private long before submitting their applications. You should also just be the smart, mature human you are. Don’t make bad choices. Have fun, but not too much.
Final Thoughts
But what about summer travel plans? We’re not anti-travel by any means, and neither is Duke. At Duke, “54% of undergraduates study away.” They love travel, but not all travel is worth writing about in your application (in fact, most isn’t). So, travel — but it’s all about balance. Make sure that you leave time in your summer to work, volunteer, or study in your community, and to augment your academic passions.
If Duke is one of your top picks as a college, let us know. We help students craft acceptance-winning applications.