Duke will offer free tuition to North and South Carolina students. Who qualifies?

Beginning this fall, Duke University will offer free tuition to undergraduate students from North Carolina and South Carolina with family incomes of $150,000 or less, the university announced Tuesday.

For undergraduate students from the Carolinas whose family incomes are $65,000 or less, Duke will provide additional financial assistance for the costs of housing, meals, course materials and other campus expenses, in addition to providing free tuition.

The assistance will be available immediately to eligible undergraduate students from North and South Carolina who are currently enrolled at the university, as well as future students who qualify. Students from military families whose legal residence is in the Carolinas will also qualify, even if they are stationed outside of either state.

“This additional financial support for undergraduates reflects Duke’s commitment to our students from the Carolinas,” Duke President Vincent Price said in a statement. “By providing even more equitable access to a Duke education, and ensuring students have the resources they need to truly thrive while here at Duke, we will also make our campus community stronger.”

Currently enrolled students will receive updated financial aid statements reflecting the university’s new commitment by July 1.

Covering tuition will cover “the vast majority” of the expenses associated with attending Duke, Gary Bennett, dean of Duke’s Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, told The News & Observer in an interview.

The Duke bursar’s website lists the cost of undergraduate tuition for the 2023-2024 school year as $31,725 per semester, for a total of almost $63,500 for the year. Additional required fees total more than $6,000 per year. On-campus housing costs range from about $4,400 to more than $8,000 per semester. Meal plans cost between more than $850 to more than $4,200 per semester.

Duke will use existing university resources to fund the effort, Bennett said. Students will receive the support through grants, not loans, and will not repay the money to Duke.

“We’re going to use our operating resources here in ways that allow us to provide this program and ... to keep it running for the foreseeable future,” Bennett said.

Duke estimates about 340 students will benefit from the assistance in the upcoming academic year, increasing aid to students from the Carolinas by more than $2 million that year. The university had more than 6,500 students enrolled in the fall 2022 semester, with more than 1,100 of those students that academic year coming from North Carolina — more than any other state. More than 150 students were from South Carolina.

Duke expects to enroll more eligible students from North and South Carolina in the next five years and anticipates spending an additional $6 million to $7 million per year to provide students with the increased assistance, the university said in announcing the program.

“We’re very excited about this program, fundamentally, because this is our home and it’s a place where we have our most long-standing commitments,” Bennett said. “And we’re really interested in ensuring that families here in the Carolinas know that a Duke education can be affordable, and that once students are here, then they’ll have access to a bevy of other supports and resources that will help them to have a really terrific college experience.”

Bennett said the university has been working toward offering this assistance program for “the last couple of years.” The income requirement of $150,000 or less balances students’ and families’ needs and the university’s “ability to continue offering this program over the long term,” he said.

“One of the things we know from our data and that of others is that students from backgrounds like these are more likely to attend colleges that are close to home, and many will remain here in the region after they graduate,” Bennett said. “So we view this not only as a commitment to students and their families, but also a commitment to the communities here in the Carolinas, where our students and we call home.”

Duke says it offers more than $130 million in financial aid grants each year, and the majority of students who attend the university pay less than the full cost.