Duke’s Spending on Undergraduate Need-Based Aid
Duke has budgeted approximately $73 million for all undergraduate financial aid in
2007-08: $53 million for need-based aid alone, $13 million for athletic scholarships,
and $7 million for merit scholarships. In total, these funds will benefit about 2,800 undergraduates, including more than 2,400 who receive need-based financial aid.
The cost of supporting need-based aid has been on the rise, and the enhancements that Duke will introduce in 2008-09 account for about $7 million of an estimated $10 million increase in spending on student need.
While some universities can support as much as 80 to 90 percent of their
need-based aid programs with endowment dedicated to this purpose, Duke is a
relatively young school, and financial aid endowment covers only about one fifth
of the cost of its commitment to need-based aid. The rest of this cost is met each
year from the same limited pool of operating funds that is used to support nearly everything else at Duke, including the academic programs that draw students and
faculty here in the first place.
New endowment raised through Duke’s Financial Aid Initiative is doing much to secure the university’s commitment to need-based aid. These permanent funds provide resources for student need year in and year out. And over time, they will grow to provide even more funding for students in the future.
Growing the University's Endowment
Duke’s leaders were able to commit to a significant increase in spending on
need-based undergraduate aid because of gifts to financial aid endowment, the
successful investment of these endowed resources, and the confidence that
other donors will support financial aid endowment and bring Duke’s Financial Aid
Initiative to—or beyond—its $300 million goal.
By the close of 2007, Duke had received nearly $244 million in commiments to Duke’s Financial Aid Initiative. More than $197 million of that total had been received and invested over the course of the initiative, and those gifts have benefited from significant growth. Duke’s endowment has consistently been one of the top-performing university endowments in the nation.
