Applying to Duke: Cost & Financial Aid: Financial Aid Initiative

President Richard H. Brodhead has consistently stressed the importance of increasing the university's endowment for financial aid as a way to attract the very best students and to make quality education affordable for all families.

In a recent speech, he said, "The university's commitment to assume the share of costs that a family cannot afford to pay is our chief way of ensuring that we select and recruit students on the grounds of ability, dedication, and promise alone, not on family circumstances. In seeking permanent support for financial aid, we're recognizing this as a permanent and fundamental obligation of the university."

Duke's new Financial Aid Initiative seeks to raise $300 million in new endowment funds over the next three years to strengthen financial aid programs for students -- $245 million for undergraduate aid and $55 million to support graduate and professional students. Nearly half of the $300 million goal has already been reached in gifts or pledges.