The total cost to attend Duke University will increase 3.7 percent to more than $73,500.
At its regular meeting over the weekend, the Duke University Board of Trustees set tuition rates for the 2019-20 school year. Undergraduate tuition will be $55,880, a 3.9 percent increase. The total cost estimates other fees and costs associated with attending college.
University officials stress its need-blind admissions policy, under which Duke says it accepts U.S. students without regard to their ability to pay, and then works to meet their demonstrated financial need. About half of all Duke students receive some financial assistance from the university. For that half, the average net cost is less than $20,000, according to Duke.
For the 2017-18 school year, the most recent for which full financial documents are available, Duke would have collected $831 million in tuition and fees, but offered $324 million in financial aid – more than one-third of total tuition charges – putting its actual collected revenue from tuition and fees at $507 million.
That topline financial aid figure applies to the entire university. Breaking down the figures further, university officials said they expect Duke to invest $175 million of institutional funds to support undergraduate financial aid in the current school year.
New tuition rates for Duke's graduate and professional schools in 2019-20 have also been set:
- Divinity School: $25,150 (Master of Divinity), up 4 percent over the current year
- Fuqua School of Business: $70,000 (daytime MBA), up 2.6 percent
- Graduate School: $55,680 (Ph.D. programs), up 4 percent
- Law School: $66,000, up 4.1 percent
- Nicholas School of the Environment: $41,000, up 2.6 percent
- Pratt School of Engineering: $56,664 (Master of Engineering Management Program), up 3.8 percent
- Sanford School of Public Policy: $48,307 (Master of Public Policy), up 3 percent
- School of Medicine: $61,170, up 3.5 percent
- School of Nursing (Graduate and Doctor of Nursing Practice): $44,112, up 3.9 percent
Duke is able to offer sometimes generous financial aid packages in part because of its sizeable endowment. At $8.5 billion, Duke University's endowment is one of the largest in the nation and the largest in the state. In fact, it is larger than the endowments of the next 13 North Carolina universities – including UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, N.C. State, and Davidson – combined.
