How athletic and merit scholarships work

In addition to need-based aid, Duke offers a limited number of athletic and merit scholarships to undergraduates of extraordinary accomplishment. 

Many years ago, Duke made an institutional decision to build a strong athletics program, which would enable the university’s teams to excel in competition against the best teams in the country. Duke allocates 235 full scholarships to student-athletes each year. In 2005-06, these full scholarships were divided among 326 students on 18 teams. Duke’s athletic scholarships are divided proportionally between men and women.

Duke’s merit scholarship program began as a means to recruit the best students to a young and ambitious school. Today, these scholarships continue to attract some of the nation’s brightest students to Duke, and programming associated with these scholarships helps foster ties to the community and advance Duke’s mission to build cross-disciplinary knowledge. Collectively, Duke’s merit scholarship programs provided financial support to 182 students in 2005-06. 

In 2005-06, about 20 percent of Duke’s athletic scholarship recipients also received need-based support, and many other merit and athletic scholarship recipients would have qualified for need-based aid if they hadn’t received merit or athletic awards.

Next: How financial aid works at the graduate school