Even before they set foot on campus as freshmen, The Class of 2007 (PDF) had achieved great things. The students notched the average SAT score up 9 points from the previous year, the largest increase in 15 years. The class is also the most ethnically and racially diverse ever admitted at Duke, with minorities comprising nearly 35 percent of the admitted students. This year's applicants marked another "first" at Duke as the inaugural class to be able to check their acceptance status online instead of enduring snail mail delivery of the news.

Pooja Kumar, a 2001 Duke graduate and second-year student at Harvard Medical School, was one of 32 Americans to be awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. The scholarship -- which rewards such characteristics as high academic achievement, personal integrity and leadership potential -- will pay for Kumar to spend two years at Oxford, where she will pursue a master of philosophy degree in international relations.

Seventeen Duke undergraduates received 2004-2005 Fulbright Scholarships for post-graduate study and teaching fellowships: Sarah Carpenter of Baltimore, MD, to study anthropology in Turkey; Nicole Czakon of State College, PA, to study physics in Belarus; William Feldman of Charleston, SC, to study philosophy in Israel; Dinah Hannaford of Swarthmore, PA, to study anthropology in Italy; Sandra Hernandez of Windermere, FL, to pursue Islamic Studies in Tunisia; Victoria Hogan of McLean, VA, to study social work in Egypt; Adam Hollowell of Charlotte, NC, to teach English as a foreign language in South Korea; Chintan Maru of Brookfield, CT, to study Political Science in Jamaica; Michael Noonan of Pottersville, NJ, to study international relations in Estonia; Katherine Porter of Charlotte, NC, to teach English as a foreign language in South Korea; Sam Prevatt of Savannah, GA, to pursue Islamic studies at the American University in Cairo, Egypt; Sumit Shah of Rose Hill, KS, to teach English in South Korea; Marie Schroeder of Niskayuna, NY, to study engineering in Austria; Kluane Snyder of Beaufort, NC, to study environmental studies in Singapore; Susan Su of Yorktown, VA, to teach English as a foreign language in Taiwan; Jonas Swartz of Durham, NC, to teach English as a foreign language in Argentina; Saeed Taheri of Milwaukee, WI, to study public health in Guatemala.

Three Duke students who intend to pursue careers in science, mathematics or engineering won Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships, which recognize academic achievements and encourage students to continue work in those fields: Emily B. Heikamp, a junior biology major from Metairie, LA; Jacqueline Ou, a sophomore mathematics/biology major from Lexington, MA; and Rahul Satija, a sophomore biology/music major from Potomac, MD.

Two Duke public policy majors, both juniors, won Truman Scholarships, which recognize academic accomplishments, leadership potential and commitment to a career in public service. Philip Kurian of Mount Pleasant, SC, and Anthony Vitarelli of Marlton, NJ, will receive scholarships of $2,000 for senior-year study and up to $26,000 for graduate studies.

Ethan Eade '04, a double major in computer science and math from Timonium, MD, was named a Marshall Scholar. Eade, an A.B. Duke Scholar and 2004 Faculty Scholar Award winner, was the lead software engineer for the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle project of the Duke Robotics Club. He played trumpet in the Duke Symphony Orchestra and a variety of other performance groups at Duke and is a dedicated weightlifter. Eade will attend the University of Cambridge in fall 2004 and plans to study robotics and distributed systems.

For the fourth time in five years, a Duke team placed third in the annual William Lowell Putnam mathematical competition. David Arthur, a senior, ranked ninth in the nation for completing eight problems while freshman Nikifor Bliznashki and junior Oaz Nir earned honorable mentions for finishing among the top one percent of contestants. The full team finished third behind MIT and Harvard. Duke teams have won the competition three times, finished second twice, and finished third four times since 1990.