Editor's note: This story is part of a series about the Class of 2027 based on a survey conducted by The Chronicle.
The Chronicle is releasing survey data about the Class of 2027 next week.
For the seventh consecutive year, we surveyed first-year students about their lifestyles, demographics, plans at Duke and more. Questions ranged from high school test scores and religious beliefs to their approximate family income and use of campus resources.
The results of this survey will be released throughout the coming week in a series of stories and will give a deeper look at Duke’s newest undergraduate students.
Survey administration
The survey was initially administered from Oct. 30 to Nov. 13, but the final deadline was extended to Nov. 20. A total of 280 first-year students completed the survey in its entirety, with 380 students answering at least one question. Three prizes were randomly awarded to participants who filled out the entire survey.
There are 1,743 first-years according to the Class of 2027 profile, meaning that 22% of the first-year class started the survey and about 16% completed it. For last year’s survey, 21% of the then first-year class started the survey and about 18% completed it.
In total, this year’s survey asked 87 questions, compared to 97 questions last year. Participants saw different questions based on their responses.
This year, several questions regarding students’ opinions on COVID-19 pandemic regulations were removed. Last year’s survey also asked students who they chose or planned to vote for in the 2022 midterm election; this year, the survey did not ask which candidates students voted or planned to vote for in the 2023 municipal elections.
This year’s survey also increased the number of family income segments students could choose from. The highest income segment in last year’s survey was “above $500,000.” This year it was “above $1,500,000.” In addition, this year’s survey allowed students to select what financial aid they received.
Regarding academics, this year’s survey included two new questions about students’ use of generative artificial intelligence or artificial intelligence capable of producing new content like text or images. The questions asked students how often they used generative AI to aid in completing assignments as well as what types of assignments they used generative AI for.
This year, only complete responses were analyzed, whereas in previous years partially completed responses were as well. According to an email from Jerry Reiter, department chair and professor of statistical science, the partially completed responses could represent a different population than the fully completed cases, so combining them could misrepresent the survey results. However, demographic data was generally consistent between fully completed responses and partially completed responses.
Reiter previously told The Chronicle about the potential limitations of the survey. He said that students’ reasons for opting out of the survey, including lack of access to the survey or low enthusiasm for Duke, could make the results less representative of the class.
Reiter also noted that students may not have chosen to complete the questionnaire due to time constraints. He wrote that this could result in the nonrespondents being systematically different than the respondents, which could skew the results of the survey.
Most respondents who did not complete the survey dropped off between sections, particularly after sections with more questions.
Below, we compare our survey data with the official Class of 2027 profile from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and other data from the University Registrar. This shows how The Chronicle’s survey responses may differ from the overall class.
Comparing gender, race and ethnicity to official Duke data
The Class of 2027 profile says 55% of first-years are female and 45% are male. Our survey found that 60.93% of respondents were women, 37.63% were men and 1.43% were non-binary or genderqueer. While our survey included more gender options, female students are still overrepresented compared to admissions data.
Like last year, The Chronicle’s survey gathered race and ethnicity data differently than Duke’s admissions office by including a “race/ethnicity not listed here” category and separating Native American or Alaskan Native students from Native Hawaiian students. Duke also groups Pacific Islanders with Asian students, but The Chronicle grouped Pacific Islanders with Native Hawaiian students.
According to the official admissions profile, 13% of first-year students identify as Hispanic/Latinx; 1.2% identify as Native American, Alaskan Native or Native Hawaiian; 13% identify as Black; 35% identified as Asian or Pacific Islander and 53% identified as white. About 5% of first-years did not specify a race or ethnicity, and 7% of students identified as more than one race.
Students could select multiple identities in our survey as well. 12.9% identified as Hispanic/Latinx; 0.4% identified as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; 1.07% identified as American Indian or Alaskan; 7.9% identified as Black; 41.8% identified as Asian and 50% of students identified as white. 15% of respondents identified as having more than one identity and 2.5% identified as a race or ethnicity not listed.
Students who identify as Asian are overrepresented in our survey results compared to admissions data. Students who identified as Hispanic/Latinx are proportionately represented. All other ethnic groups are underrepresented.
Disaggregated ethnicity
The Office of the University Registrar publishes ethnicity data for all active Duke students. This data is drawn from DukeHub, according to registrar database analyst Anna Kourouniotis. The chart below indicates the ethnic makeup for the Class of 2027 who are currently active or on an approved leave of absence. Students could also select multiple identities.
Ethnic Group Makeup, Class of 2027
In our survey, 14.5% of students who identified as Asian gave more details about their ethnicity. About 2.6% of Asian students identified as Chinese, 8.6% identified as Indian or Indian-American and 1.7% identified as Korean or Korean American. Individual students identified as South Asian and Pakistani.
Fewer than 10 students who identified as Hispanic/Latinx specified their ethnicity. The same is true for students who identified as white and “other.” Most white students who specified their ethnicity indicated that they were Middle Eastern.
No students who identified as Black, Native American/Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander went into further detail about their ethnicities.
Disability and immunity
This year, we modified our questions addressing disability to reflect the Americans with Disabilities Act’s definition of a disability, which defines a person with a disability as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. 4.64% of respondents identified as having a physical impairment and 6.07% identified as having a mental impairment. Students could identify as having multiple impairments.
However, about 22% of undergraduate students are registered with the Student Disability Access Office, according to SDAO Director Leigh Bhe, so the number of first-years with disabilities may be underrepresented in our survey.
Geographic and socioeconomic diversity
The official Class of 2027 profile states that 86% of students are from the United States and 14% are international students. Similarly, our survey consisted of 86.8% domestic students and 13.2% international students.
About 13% of the Class of 2027 is from North Carolina compared to 17.7% of respondents in our survey.
The New York Times published data in 2016 about Duke’s socioeconomic diversity, using estimates based on data from the Class of 2013. Their data shows that the median family income of Duke students is $186,700. Our data shows that 66% of respondents had an annual family income over $125,000.
Another 12.5% of respondents had annual family incomes between $80,000 and $125,000, while 14.3% had incomes between $40,000 and $80,000 and 7% had incomes under $40,000.
According to the Census Bureau, the median family income in the United States as of 2022 was $74,580.
According to Duke’s data, 56% of the Class of 2027 receive financial aid, while 43.2% of respondents in our survey receive financial aid. The Chronicle’s survey results underrepresent the proportion of students on financial aid.
Academics
Both the official class profile and our survey stated that the percentage of students who went to public secondary school was about 58%. However, The Chronicle’s survey overrepresents how many students went to private schools. Additionally, our data is not fully comparable because the survey did not ask who went to school outside of the United States.
The Chronicle’s survey also overrepresents the proportion of students who applied early decision. 56% of the survey’s respondents applied early decision, while 51% of the Class of 2027 was admitted in the ED round, according to Dean of Admissions Christoph Guttentag.
The middle 50% of SAT scores for respondents in our survey is approximately 1520 to 1570 and the middle 50% of ACT scores is 34 to 35. This aligns closely with official data, which places the middle 50% range for SAT and ACT scores at 1520 to 1570 and 34 to 35, respectively.
The Chronicle’s survey also found that 12.9% of respondents were first-generation college students compared to 12% of the official Class of 2027 profile.
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Katie Tan is a Trinity senior and digital strategy director of The Chronicle's 119th volume. She was previously managing editor for Volume 118.