Duke’s Support of Graduate and Professional Students

Gifts to Duke’s Financial Aid Initiative are benefitting Duke graduate and professional students as well as Duke undergraduates. 

Duke and its peers know that an exceptional university requires exceptional PhD students—students who will not only pursue their own research, but also make substantial contributions to the work of the faculty. Though, of course, most twenty-something-year-olds could not begin to afford half a decade of graduate study, applicants to the Graduate School are not evaluated for need. Instead, Duke, like other top research universities, includes an offer of funding along with almost every offer of admission to a PhD student.

Students pursuing master's degrees at the Divinity School and the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences often enter careers that are beneficial to society but not as financially rewarding as other professions. To support the goals of these students and to minimize the burden of debt they will carry with them after graduation, Duke offers as much scholarship aid as operating budgets and endowment income will allow.

Duke's School of Medicine admits many of the best students in the world, and through a combination of grants and loans, the school is committed to meeting the full demonstrated need of these students. Duke's School of Nursing has more limited resources for student aid. While the Medical Center offers significant tuition assistance to qualified employees and loan reimbursement to qualified new nurses, the majority of the school's students must rely on a combination of loans and modest need-based grants to fund their studies.

Duke’s School of Law and Fuqua School of Business have developed exceptional programs and reputations; however, they cannot always compete with the financial aid packages offered by peer institutions. To support and attract the best students and to encourage diversity among them, these schools offer a limited amount of grant funding to students of exceptional promise.