Duke University is a for-profit research organisation located in Durham, North Carolina. The school, which was founded in the present city of Trinity in 1838 by Methodists and Quakers, moved to Durham in 1892. The Duke Endowment was established in 1924 by tobacco and electricity entrepreneur James Buchanan Duke. Later, the group adopted the moniker Washington Duke in honour of Duke’s late father.
Over 8,600 acres make up the campus, which is divided into three adjacent sub-campuses in Durham and a marine lab near Beaufort. The 210-foot Duke Chapel, the West Campus’ focal point and the highest point of elevation was built by African American architect Julian Abele, who graduated first in his class from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.
Currently, Duke University owns 256 structures on 8,693 acres of land, including the 7,044 acres of Duke Fores. The West, East, and Central campuses, as well as the Medical Center, make up the campus’s four main sections. These sections are all connected by a free bus service. Duke has 15 acres in Beaufort, North Carolina, as part of its marine laboratory. The 54-acre Sarah P. Duke Gardens, which was built in the 1930s, is one of the principal tourist destinations on the main campus.
The Collegiate Gothic architecture of West Campus is the reason why Duke students frequently refer to the campus as “the Gothic Wonderland.” Julian Abele, a pioneering African-American architect and the head designer at Horace Trumbauer’s offices, created a large portion of the campus. While the structures of the academic quadrangles display elements of the more complex late French and Italian styles, the residential quadrangles are of an early and fairly austere design. East Campus, the campus for first-year students, is made up of Georgian-styled structures. Duke University was named one of the most beautiful college campuses in the US by Travel+Leisure in 2011.
There are seven primary hues and seventeen colour shades in the stone utilised for West Campus. The stone has “an older, more appealing antique feel” and is “warmer and softer coloured than the Princeton stone,” according to the university’s planning and construction supervisor, giving the institution a “artistic look.” James B. Duke first recommended using stone from a quarry in Princeton, New Jersey, but changed the plans to buy a nearby quarry in Hillsborough to save money. On the tallest peak of West Campus, Duke Chapel is located in the middle. The chapel, which was built between 1930 and 1935 and accommodates 1,600 people, is one of Durham County’s highest structures at 210 feet.
Three of Duke University’s 12 colleges and institutes Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Pratt School of Engineering, and Duke Kunshan University offer undergraduate programmes. Despite being a nonsectarian and independent school, the university maintains “historical, institutional, ongoing, and symbolic ties” to the United Methodist Church.
U.S. News & World Report describes Duke admission as being “most selective.” For the Class of 2025, Duke got close to 50,000 applications, with a 5.7% acceptance rate overall. For the Class of 2023, the yield rate was 54%. The ACT score range for the Class of 2024 was 34-35 and the SAT score range was 1500-1570.
In terms of private universities, Duke received the sixth-highest number of Fulbright, Rhodes, Truman, and Goldwater scholarships from 2001 to 2011. The university employs a need-blind admissions policy and fully satisfies the needs of all admitted students. Approximately half of all Duke students receive financial help in some capacity, including need-based, athletic, and merit-based funding. For the school year 2019–20, the typical need-based grant was.
Along with the Pearse Memorial Library at the Duke Marine Lab, the Perkins, Bostock, and Rubenstein Libraries on West Campus, the Lilly and Music Libraries on East Campus, the Perkins, Bostock, and Rubenstein Libraries on Duke Kunshan University, and the independently run libraries serving the schools of business, divinity, law, and medicine are all part of the Duke Libraries.
The Nasher Museum of Art on Central Campus is where Duke’s art holdings are kept. The museum, which bears the name Raymond Nasher in honour of a Duke alumnus and art collector, was created by Rafael Violy. Over 13,000 pieces of art, including works by William Cordova, Marlene Dumas, Olafur Eliasson, David Hammons, Barkley L. Hendricks, Christian Marclay, Kerry James Marshall, Alma Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas, Bob Thompson, Kara Walker, and more, can be found in the museum, which cost over $23 million to build and open in 2005.
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