Scholarships, Fellowships & Summer Support

Financial Aid at Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

At Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, our formula for success begins with attracting the best students. Support for financial aid, which enables so many students to attend Duke, is the most fundamental way to invest in tomorrow’s leaders. Our commitment to need-blind admissions is a deep value—we want to make it possible to bring students from all walks of life to our campus. And research shows that diversity in the classroom improves the learning outcomes for all our students.

Thanks to a dedicated faculty and an innovative, hands-on curriculum, Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences offers a premier learning experience. But our vitality as a school comes from populating our programs with phenomenal students seeking to make the most out of the opportunities Duke provides.

Our continued ability to attract such bright and ambitious students to Duke—students with the intellect and drive to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges—depends on our ability to provide financial aid. We must offer aid packages that put a Duke education within reach for talented undergraduates with demonstrated need. We also must offer fellowship support that allows us to successfully compete for the best graduate students to work with our faculty in all fields of research.

Alumni and friends who contribute to financial aid help strengthen our position and help shape the future for countless students. Support for endowed scholarships, fellowships and summer stipends, as well as contributions to the Annual Fund, make all the difference in bringing outstanding students to Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

Undergraduate Scholarships

To develop leaders who bring value and positive change to all corners of our society, we must lead the way in educational opportunity. Duke’s undergraduate program has flourished in part because of Duke’s commitment to financial aid: We admit U.S. students without regard to their financial circumstances, and meet their full demonstrated financial need. This twin commitment has been key to our ability to attract a wide pool of talented, young problem-solvers who spur each other on to excellence today and who will become leaders in their professions and communities tomorrow.

But maintaining this successful stance is increasingly expensive. We believe that sustaining Duke’s commitment to financial aid not only helps us to compete for the brightest minds, but is also the only honorable choice for an institution of higher education truly committed to educating future leaders. Your investment in financial aid endowment will help us embrace this ideal and make an enduring difference in the lives of students and their families for generations to come.

  • Your gift of $100,000 or more can create an unrestricted scholarship that enables outstanding students to come to Duke.
  • Your gift of $300,000 or more can create a restricted scholarship endowment, such as a fund that gives preference to students from a particular region

Graduate Fellowships

Our graduate students are a force for innovation. Doctoral students not only benefit from an excellent education, but also make a profound contribution to the school. They advance the research enterprise, assist faculty, mentor undergraduates, and bring fresh perspectives to a wide range of conversations. Graduate students are also key to our ability to attract top faculty, who know these talented young people will be vital to their own scholarly success. Our challenge is that demand for skilled talent is high, not only among top university graduate programs, but also from every branch of industry and from fields ranging from medicine to finance. We must encourage the most promising students to pursue advanced degrees at Duke by offering funding packages that compete with those offered by peer institutions.

  • Your gift of $100,000 or more can establish an endowed fellowship that supports graduate students at the doctoral level.
  • Your gift of $300,000 or more can establish an endowed fellowship in one of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences' academic departments, such as computer science, history or sociology.

Summer Support

Summer support allows undergraduate students to pursue internships, research opportunities, and other experiences that enable them to build and expand their skills. Donor gifts directed toward summer support help enrich the education of Duke students and give them the chance to apply and extend their knowledge.

Graduate students, too, benefit from stipends that allow them to spend their summers conducting fieldwork or immersing themselves in an archive or simply focusing on research and writing in Durham. In many fields, Duke provides graduate students with funding for only the academic year, even as many of our peer institutions provide 12 months of fellowships support. Summer fellowships help fill that gap and keep our graduate programs competitive.

  • Your gift of $300,000 or more can establish an endowment to support student endeavors such as internships and summer research.