Duke acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Duke admitted 2,910 of 55,541 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 5.2%. Every number below comes from the college’s own Common Data Set, each year linked to its document; a figure the college leaves blank says “Not published”, and the notes at the foot of the page say where a total is the sum of rows the college printed.
What did admitted applicants have? How to get into Duke counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Duke acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 55,541 | 2,910 | 5.2% | 1,749 | 60.1% |
| 2024-25 | 51,795 | 2,957 | 5.7% | 1,740 | 58.8% |
| 2023-24 | 46,366 | 3,145 | 6.8% | 1,742 | 55.4% |
Acceptance rate is admitted divided by applied; yield is enrolled divided by admitted. Both are computed by Aristo Scholars from the two counts printed beside them.
Early decision at Duke
Duke waitlist
Duke SAT and ACT scores
| CDS year | Composite SAT 25th to 75th | EBRW 25th to 75th | Math 25th to 75th | ACT 25th to 75th | Submitted an SAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 1510 to 1570 | Not published | Not published | 34 to 35 | 48.0% |
| 2024-25 | Not published | 740 to 770 | 760 to 800 | 34 to 35 | 48.0% |
| 2023-24 | 1520 to 1570 | Not published | Not published | 34 to 35 | 47.0% |
What Duke says matters in admission
In section C7 each college rates its own admission factors as Very Important, Important, Considered or Not Considered. These are the factors Duke rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Class rank, Application essay
- 2024-25
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Class rank
- 2023-24
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Class rank
Duke testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Test-optional: 'Duke University is test-optional for both first-year and transfer applicants in the 2026-2027 admissions cycle.' Scores are considered if sent, and official scores are required only from enrolling students.
From Duke’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
The 2025-26 C1 prints no total rows, so that year's totals are the sums of the male and female rows. The 2025-26 document lists an early decision plan but prints no C21 counts and no C2 waitlist counts; 2024-25 prints no waitlist counts, and 2023-24 prints only the number offered a place. The 2024-25 C9 prints EBRW and Math ranges but no composite SAT range, so the SAT table gives the two section ranges and the composite reads Not published.
Duke acceptance rate questions
- What is the Duke acceptance rate?
- Duke's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 55,541 first-year applicants and 2,910 admitted, an acceptance rate of 5.2%. It was 5.7% in 2024-25 and 6.8% in 2023-24.
- What is the Duke early decision acceptance rate?
- In 2024-25, 1,042 of 6,013 early decision applicants were admitted (17.3%), against 5.7% of all applicants. Early decision applicants are a different pool who commit to enroll, so the two rates are not a like-for-like comparison.
- What SAT scores do Duke students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1510 to 1570, and ACT submitters scored 34 to 35. 48.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
- How many students get off the Duke waitlist?
- In 2023-24, Duke offered 2,266 applicants a place on the waitlist; the number who accepted is not published, and the number admitted from it is not published.
- Does Duke require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Test-optional: 'Duke University is test-optional for both first-year and transfer applicants in the 2026-2027 admissions cycle.' Scores are considered if sent, and official scores are required only from enrolling students.
Applying to Duke?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Duke says it weighs.
Source: Duke Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Duke. All official acceptance rates