Duke Class of 2026 Early Decision Admissions Statistics

In all, 4,015 students applied Early Decision to Duke University’s Class of 2026. Of these students, 855 earned admission to become the first members of Duke’s latest incoming class. This marks an Early Decision admission rate of approximately 21.3% for Duke’s Class of 2026. Last year, as our readers may recall, Duke received over 5,000 Early Decision applications and the Early Decision admit rate stood at 17% (it was at 21% for the Class of 2024). So you’ll note no Duke Today headline this December touting a banner admissions cycle. While it was indeed a strong Early Decision cycle for the Durham, North Carolina-based university, it just wasn’t last year. Last year was its own beast. This year was more of a return to normalcy.

As Steve Hartsoe reports for Duke Today in a release entitled “Duke Announces First Members of Class of 2026,” “Of these, 695 plan to enroll in the Trinity School of Arts & Sciences, and 160 in the Pratt School of Engineering, said Christoph Guttentag, dean of admissions…The states most represented by the early decision admits are New York, North Carolina, California, Florida, and Texas. ‘We believe this will be one of the most influential classes to attend Duke, and the group we’ve admitted through the Early Decision and QuestBridge program will very much set the tone,’ [Duke’s Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph] Guttentag said. ‘They have demonstrated great resilience in challenging times, and they managed to maintain their commitment to academic excellence, extracurricular accomplishment, and — most importantly — caring for each other and their community. They are particularly ready and inclined to take advantage of all Duke has to offer them.'”

Last year, the headline of the Duke Today press release announcing Early Decision admits to the Class of 2025 read, “840 students admitted out of 5,036 early decision applicants, the most ever at Duke.” You’ll note no “the most ever” this year. Is the irony lost on our readers that colleges claim to wish to make the process less stressful for all and yet they’re the first to brag when they receive record applications and set record low admission rate benchmarks? It’s certainly not lost on us! In any case, congratulations to all of Ivy Coach’s students who applied Early Decision to Duke’s Class of 2026! You all got in!