Financial Aid Expectations

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>My daughter is a Junior at a public school in Florida. She scored a 2240 on the SAT; she is in the running for a National Merit Scholar based on her PSAT score; she has scored 5's on her APUSH, AP Art History and AP Bio exams; she is currently taking AP Chem, AP ENG COMPO; AP Latin Vergil; AP Calc AB; and AP US History. She has been on the Cross-Country team for three years and is currently the Captain. She is a member of the math and latin clubs. She has a 4.0 unweighted GPA and I think a 4.5+ unweighted GPA. </p>

<p>My question is, given her scores and stats, how much money, if any, should she hope to expect to receive in scholarships to defray the current, unaffordable amount associated with attending Duke?</p>

2

<p>Duke’s financial aid is almost entirely need-based. They have a very limited number -15 or so- very prestigious A.B.Duke Scholarships that are offered to the very top applicants - those that are probably considering Duke vs offers at Harvard, Stanford, etc. There are also the Robertson Scholarships as well. The stats you presented for you daughter show that she is probably a competitive candidate for admission to Duke. However, Duke’s merit scholarships are so few, and so competitive, I’m not sure anyone can “expect” that they might be offered one of these merit based awards.</p>

3

<p>I was recently accepted to Duke and my stats were generally on par with your daughter’s. </p>

<p>Dukedad is correct in saying that almost all aid is need-based. However, there are a few merit-based scholarships which are full-ride scholarships. The two most prominent are the Robertson Scholarship (18 freshmen receive it) and the A.B. Duke Scholarship (I believe about 30 or so students in the freshmen class receive this–but I may be wrong here). My Florida adcom (yes, I’m from Florida! --Sarasota/Bradenton) Stacy Rusak told me that, for these two scholarships, one would expect the following applicants:</p>

<p>AB Duke: Really good in ONE thing, and that thing is usually very unique or impressive–i.e. starting some sort of giant program, creating a nonprofit and running it, etc. But it could also be a devotion to sports or something of the like. Tl;DR: Focus on one thing.</p>

<p>Robertson: Generally well-rounded, really good in a lot of areas and superb leadership qualities. </p>

<p>Personally I have some (little) hope for the Robertson to, as you said, “defray” the costs of Duke (I have an EFC of $11,000), but because it’s DUKE I’m obviously not going to bank on getting the award. </p>

<p>So, in the long term scheme of things, it’s not good to rely on merit scholarships because the chances are just so low for everyone, because every student at Duke is exceptional. </p>

<p>Just a note: be advised that outside scholarships deduct from your aid package. So, if you receive 30,000$ a year in aid and receive 5,000$ in scholarships your aid package is reduced to 25,000$. I never knew about this and now I’m in a tight spot. But, it’s Duke, so I think the investment is highly worth it.</p>

<p>I hope I helped! If you have any questions feel free to message!</p>

4

<p>Just to clarify, the number of AB Duke Scholars has vacillated between 8 and 16 for the last decade or so. Please check out the website below for more information about this scholarship program.</p>

<p>[A.B</a>. Duke | Scholars By Class Year](<a href=“http://www.abduke.org/scholars/year.aspx?year=2015]A.B”>http://www.abduke.org/scholars/year.aspx?year=2015)</p>

5

<p>Toujoursduke - you are probably aware of this if you have discussed it with Duke’s financial aid office, but I just wanted to clarify something on how Duke handles outside scholarships. They will, as you mention, reduce your aid on a dollar-for-dollar basis. However, Duke will allow you to first reduce your self-help aid (work study and Stafford Loan) before they will touch your grant aid. So, if you had $7500 in self-help aid in your FA package ($2500 in work study, $5000 in Stafford loan), you would need to exceed $7500 in outside scholarships before Duke would reduce your grant aid. In addition to this, Duke will actually let you choose which self help component to reduce first, work study or Stafford Loan.</p>

<p>If your outside scholarships are more than your self-help aid, there is another approach/request that you can make to the Duke FA office, although I’m unsure of how they would respond. Some schools (Dartmouth is one), will actually reduce a student’s EFC to the Federally determined (FAFSA) level in order, to let them “keep” more of the grant money once outside scholarships exceed the self-help aid. Then, only reduce grants as a last resort. Like I said, not sure if Duke would do this but it’s worth asking. It’s a way that they can further help a student out without giving the student an “over award”, which is a federal no-no.</p>

6

<p>ProudPapa, FWIW…I spoke to the parent of a recently accepted ED student. His income is greater than $250k/yr. Duke EFC was $30K (they have another child in college), and the FA package included over $20k/yr in grants.
I was floored with the generosity of Duke’s FA. Hope that helps you gauge a little.</p>

7

<p>Yes I was aware of their policy, but Duke’s policy is to subtract all money, after self-help, 100% from the grant aid.</p>

8

<p>My parents make 160k and we got 8k in grants.</p>