<p>Just over 50% of Duke students receive financial aid. The average financial aid package is just about $35,000 PER YEAR.</p>
<p>So up to $5,000 of that can be made up with loans, up to $1800 with work study, and a little of student contribution (over the summer work), the rest is GRANTS (free money!).</p>
<p>If your parents make under $40,000 they pay nothing and you pay nothing (no loans)
Under $60,000 and your parents pay nothing and you have about $1-2,000 in student loans a year</p>
<p>Students who have parents making $160,000 still receive financial aid, so I don’t know why you are saying that financial aid sucks at Duke.</p>
<p>Duke is one of VERY few schools that still offers need blind.</p>
<p>Now of course all of this changes if you are an international student, but as a US citizen or Permanent Resident Duke has excellent financial aid.</p>
<p>this thread has been very helpful! i have another question about financial aid question too. </p>
<p>i really shouldnt be saying this online, but my parents make roughly 130k a year. my brother is in college (at WashU, very expensive!), and my other brother is in grad school. what kind of financial aid do you think i could get? and does my brother being in grad school matter?</p>
<p>Your brother being in grad school does not matter. At that point he is considered independent and the school does not expect your parents to contribute. Now your brother who is at Wash U as an undergraduate will matter for financial aid.</p>
<p>Now at 130k it is hard to say, but I believe you will still receive aid (mostly in the form of federal loans). But my suggestion is to fill out the calculators either on FAFSA or on Duke’s financial aid website.</p>
<p>Compared to peer institutions, Duke financial aid is fairly pathetic. UPenn got rid of student loans as did Harvard. I think Yale and Princeton have too. </p>
<p>MIT has given my twin brother better financial aid than Duke has given me each year. I love Duke, but the financial aid leaves a lot to be desired.</p>
<p>Sorry, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT are not really peer institutions to Duke. I love Duke too, but it’s not on the same level and its endowment isn’t near those. Thus, I’d expect those to be better (same with Stanford). And the financial aid at those institutions is universally more generous.</p>
<p>UPenn, on the other hand, is a peer of Duke and it’s financial aid is similar despite the fact it has no loans. Just because it gives no loans doesn’t mean it gives more in grants. In fact, I know of at least two people who got a better financial aid package from Duke than UPenn. I know of one person who got a better package at UPenn. So, I think it depends on the individual. Duke is actually quite good with financial aid when comparing it to the next rung of institutions (that is, behind HYPSM). My tuition is less than my sister’s at the University of Michigan. Duke also blows Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Wash U, and Northwestern’s financial aid out of the water based on various reports. Its supposedly similar to the others Ivies (Dartmouth, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, UPenn) and the top LACs. There is a lot of variability between individuals as some consider house value while others exclude it, etc.</p>
<p>I’d be surprised Blue Dog if your friends financial aid was actually better at Duke when you subtract out the loans. That $5000 a year combined with $1800 in work study is $6800 a year that Duke counts as a financial aid, when in reality its money you have to pay back/earn. </p>
<p>I just hate when people quote statistics like 50% of Duke students receive some form of aid. To me that seems like an incredibly small percentage for a school that costs $50000 a year. Certainly more than 50% of American families would have trouble affording Duke at full price. </p>
<p>It’s also unfair for you to say you can’t compare Duke to HYPSM and then compare Duke to John Hopkins, Vandy, WUSTL, and Northwestern (especially when you consider class size and endowment). </p>
<p>Duke may be comparable to its peer institutions, but it certainly doesn’t blow them out of the water.</p>
<p>My point is that you can’t compare Duke to HYPSM because their endowments (and prestige) are so much larger. John Hopkins, Vandy, WUSTL, and Northwestern have similar endowments (varying from $2.5B to $5.4B, while Duke’s is ~$4.6B) and prestige, so the comparison is more viable. I’d admit that I singled those four out as they have notoriously bad financial aid. And from what I’ve heard, Duke is much more generous than those four. UChicago used to be bad as well, but got a huge gift from an alum a few years ago and have amped up the aid effort. As far as I know, all the other schools with similar prestige + endowment (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, UPenn, Dartmouth, UChicago, Emory, Rice) have similar financial aid policies as Duke. (With various individual changes like Brown not being need blind for transfers, just started being need blind for freshman applicants a few years ago). And my anecdotal evidence is from a few years ago, so I suppose it could have changed in the meantime…</p>
<p>While Duke is certainly far from the best in the country, it’s far far from the worst as well. College aid in general is unfair generally to the upper-middle class (those making between $80,000-$180,000) and can improve across the board. But this isn’t unique to Duke. The lower and lower middle class get good packages generally, and the upper class doesn’t need them. Of course more than 50% of American families would have trouble affording Duke at full price, but that’s not really a meaningful statement since Duke’s applicant pool is not a cross section of America. It skews GREATLY towards the wealthy, just as every other elite institution does. In any event, apply and see what you get. I was actually pleasantly surprised. But every individual situation is different.</p>
<p>Since you seem concerned about the specifics of Duke’s campus- perhaps I can share some of my observations from the six weeks I have been a student (not undergrad). The campus appears disjointed with separate campuses for west, central and east. They have buses running between them at pretty regular intervals. The campus is attractive with a consistent gothic theme in the architecture of every building except North Hospital. The medical center is sprawling with literally dozens of buildings, some so far apart that you have to take sky tunnels between them. There is a defunct monorail system as well as electric golf carts whizzing about. I suspect that the undergrads don’t do much research as I have yet to meet an undergrad in any of the buildings where I am rotating. Parking is a bit of a pain in the ass but I hear that undergrads live on campus on get parking close by. The university is not terribly well integrated into the city and there are acres of trees separating the campus from the town; it’s just as well, the neighborhoods to the east of the campus are pretty crime ridden and run down. You can’t beat the charm of the quad areas surrounding the chapel and the Sarah Duke gardens are amazing to walk around in (when it isn’t 90 degrees and oppressively humid). I can’t speak to the undergrad experience but as far as the campus goes- it is charming, attractive, not terribly spread out but kind of isolated from the rest of Durham.</p>
<p>most of your post seems pretty accurate, belevitt, but one thing:
That works in reverse too - I did research in the Med center, but I was in hospital south in a lab and never met a med student…But there were a couple other undergrads in that same lab and several others spread out among other labs in that hall. Plus, other departments have undergrads. And some other medical research is conducted along research drive rather than in the med center. I have a few friends working in those buildings.</p>
<p>If anyone is interested in learning more about student life, I would refer you to a blog started by some friends in my freshman dorm ([Crazie</a> Talk](<a href=“http://www.crazie-talk.com%5DCrazie”>http://www.crazie-talk.com)). Duke basketball forms a pivotal part student life, and the Duke student is a large part of Duke basketball. The “Cameron Crazies” are a highlight of all of college basketball; this site gives a good inside look at student life and basketball.</p>