Financial Aid FAQs

1. How much money did Duke provide for student financial support in 2004-2005?
• Altogether, Duke invested about $129 million during the academic year including:
• In 2004-2005 alone, we invested some $59 million in undergraduate student financial support (including need-based, merit and athletic aid)
• $50 million for doctoral students
• $19 million for professional students
2. What was the source of the money for financial aid?
• Duke has relatively little endowment funding for financial aid. So, for instance, only about 20 percent of the need-based financial aid for undergraduates in 2004-2005 came from endowed funds. The remainder came from unrestricted resources (operating funds), which also support Duke's excellent faculty and programs that make the Duke experience so compelling.
3. What percentage of Duke undergraduates receive need-based financial support?
• About 40 percent. For U.S. citizens and permanent residents, Duke's undergraduate admissions policy is "need blind," which means that applicants are accepted regardless of their ability to pay for college. Duke meets 100 percent of demonstrated financial need as determined by university calculations. In addition, the university offers some merit and athletic scholarships to undergraduates.
4. Why has Duke's contribution to need-based financial aid for undergraduates almost doubled since 1995?
• Duke is committed to meeting 100 percent of the financial need of students it admits. The number of Duke applicants has grown significantly in the past decade, and these applicants represent a more diverse population and qualify for greater financial aid than ever before. Over the past decade, the cost of attendance has increased 57 percent, but over the same 10 years, Duke's investment in financial aid has about doubled. In addition, Duke continues to enhance its financial aid program. For instance, now students receiving aid can apply for a grant in lieu of a summer earning requirement in order to take advantage of academic enrichment opportunities. Another factor for the increase in Duke contribution is the change in government funding for education: 20 years ago, federal funds provided 20 percent of the financial aid we distribute; now it's about 8 percent. The nation's economic condition has also played a part, as we find that applicant families in some sectors have less discretionary income than they had in the late '90s.
5. Why does an undergraduate education at Duke cost so much in the first place?
• Tuition is clearly the greatest source of revenue for a university, but tuition covers only about two-thirds of the cost of an education, so all students, even those whose families can pay full tuition, benefit from the university's ability to invest in the education of each student. We continue to try to balance increases in tuition and fees with the commitment to provide sufficient resources for the outstanding educational programs we offer.
6. How does a student apply for financial aid?
• Students can find complete information about applying for financial aid when they contact Duke Admissions. Financial aid application forms, including tax records and standardized parent statements, are due with the application in order for awards to be announced along with the admissions decisions. Duke worked a few years ago with a group of 27 peer institutions to establish a standardized approach to assessing a family's need. At Duke, admissions decisions are made "need blind," without regard to whether the student did or didn't apply for financial aid. For the 2004 entering class, 52 percent applied for aid, and 78 percent of those received an offer of aid.
7. How does Duke decide how much aid to give in the form of a grant versus a loan? Is there a formula?
• As noted earlier, Duke worked with a group of its peers to develop a standardized approach to determining a family's ability to support educational expenses. This agreed-upon analysis considers family income, assets, family size, number in college and other related factors to determine what amount, if any, parents can provide in a given year towards their child's cost of attendance. We ask families to help us individualize this result by providing us with information on any extenuating or unusual circumstances that affect their ability to support educational expenses. The calculated family contribution is subtracted from the cost of attendance to determine each student's demonstrated need. Expressed as a formula it looks like this:
  
  Cost of attendance
  -Family contribution
  =Demonstrated Need
  
  Each student is offered a standardized amount of work and loan (self-help) with grant funds equaling the difference between work and loan funds and the student's demonstrated need. Students with family incomes of $40,000 or less received more in grants and less in loans. Duke will continue to expect parents and student recipients to partner with the university to pay for college with a combination of job, loan, parental support and grant.
8. How does your financial aid system at Duke affect middle-income families?
• Our aid determination has been of great benefit to students from middle-income families. About one-third of the students receiving grant money came from what could be described as middle-income. The median family income for a student qualifying for need-based Duke financial aid was about $86,000. Under certain circumstances, families with incomes between $150,000 and $200,000 qualified.
9. Some of these family incomes seem high. Why are they getting aid?
• For a high-income family to receive aid, there must be some extenuating circumstances such as the number of children in college, family illness, etc. With a tuition/room/board cost in excess of $40,000, many families need help to select Duke for their child's education. All families are judged by standard criteria in determining a fair parent contribution level for their child's education.
10. How are North Carolina students being served?
• North Carolina residents get aid in greater numbers and of a greater size than the general population. About 45 percent of North Carolina students (compared with 40 percent of all undergraduates) get need-based aid, and the average grant is somewhat higher. Duke admits more students from North Carolina than any other state—more than 1000 students from the Carolinas are presently enrolled, and they receive more than $8 million in grants.
11. Does Duke give financial aid to international undergraduates?
• Starting in 2002, Duke added scholarships for a limited number of undergraduates.
12. Does Duke give merit scholarships?
• Yes, Duke has a solid program of merit scholarships including the A.B. Duke and B.N. Duke Scholarships, the Reginaldo Howard Scholarships for minority students, the Robertson and University scholars programs and a handful of selective merit scholarships. Most of these are adequately endowed, and the administration has determined that adding additional merit scholarships is not our need at this time. Many of those students receiving merit awards would also have qualified for need-based financial aid.

* The self-help amount increases each year the student is at Duke. For seniors, the expectation in 04/05 was about $8,100, including $6,300 in loans and $1,800 in work.