Highlights:
After some slight decline in the last three years, applications to the Graduate School for Fall 2003 totaled nearly 8,000. This has resulted in a substantial increase in matriculants to our Ph.D. and research Master's programs, and a marked improvement in both selectivity and yield. For the first time, we were able to fill a class by making offers to fewer than 20 percent of the applicant pool. The overall enrollment is now about 2600, and the Ph.D. population is, for the first time, more than 2000.
The quality of the entering class, measured by both standardized scores and the number of James B. Duke Fellows, also kept pace with last year's record, as has the diversity of the student body, with 41 U.S. minority students (18 of whom won competitive fellowship awards). Multi-year statistics on median GRE scores, undergraduate grade-point averages, time to degree, attrition rates and job placement of Duke graduates are available on the Graduate School Web site.
The Graduate School continued its leadership role in several national initiatives, including Dean Lew Siegel's appointment to the Boards of the Council of Graduate School (chair) and the Research Committee of the Graduate Record Examination (chair). The Graduate School continues to be an active participant in the Woodrow Wilson Responsive Ph.D. Project and five of our doctoral programs (Chemistry, English, Mathematics, History and Psychological and Brain Sciences) are involved with the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate.
Special achievements:
New programs and other achievements during the 2003-04 academic year include:
- New interdisciplinary certificate programs in Nanoscience, Photonics, and Advanced Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences
- A revised certificate and admitting program in Cognitive Neuroscience
- Creation of a Dean's Award for Mentoring (awarded this year to John Aldrich, Salvatore Pizzo and Lori Setton)
- Further centralization of Pathways to the Professoriate, workshops on the Instructions Uses of Technology, Responsible Conduct of Research Training, and the Preparing Future Faculty program
- Establishment of gradparents@duke.edu, a listserve to facilitate discussion among graduate and professional parents.
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