Interested in Applying?
Interested in applying to Duke Graduate School? We're interested in you.
Information about the process of applying for admission to graduate study at Duke is provided in this section of the Graduate School website. Please read all instructions carefully to ensure proper and complete application, and to avoid mistakes that may delay the consideration of your file.
Students seeking to do graduate work at Duke University for degree purposes must be formally admitted to the Graduate School by the Dean. The Graduate School welcomes applications from students holding a bachelor's degree (or the equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's degree) from an accredited institution. In addition to the prerequisite bachelor's degree, all applicants must submit satisfactory scores on the Graduate Record Examination, official and confidential transcripts from all post-secondary school education, three letters of recommendation, a Statement of Purpose, and the online application with $75 application fee. International applicants must also provide official scores for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Individual departments may specify additional application requirements, which can be found in their program descriptions.
Students who do not intend to earn an advanced degree at Duke, but who wish to take graduate courses, may apply for non-degree admission. Non-degree seeking students must also be formally admitted to the Graduate School by the Dean, and such admission is granted in three different categories: (1) admission as a regular non-degree student with a particular department; (2) admission as a special non-degree student without departmental affiliation through the Office of Continuing Studies; (3) admission as an unclassified student in the summer session only.
Credits earned by non-degree students taken at Duke before full admission to the Graduate School may be carried over into a graduate degree program if (1) the action is recommended by the student's Director of Graduate Studies and approved by the Dean; (2) the work is not more than two years old; (3) the amount of such credit does not exceed one semester at full-time tuition; and (4) the work has received grades of B or better.
Students who have discontinued a program of degree work at Duke must apply for readmission to the Graduate School. Those who discontinue study prior to completing a degree must, by letter, request permission of the Dean to be readmitted to the degree program; those who discontinue study after earning a master's degree must file a new application for the doctoral program.
If you have questions about any aspect of the application process, do not hesitate to contact us.
