Your Aid Offer
We determine your financial aid by subtracting your family contribution from Duke's cost of attendance:
Cost of Attendance (Total Costs)
- Expected Family Contribution
= Aid Offered
There are three types of aid: loans, work-study, and grants/scholarships.
Loan
If your family's total income is above $65,000, part of the aid offered to you will be a federal loan. Federal student loans are typically the best loans available to a student.
The amount of loans in your aid offer is determined by your family's total income, with $5,000 as the maximum initially included. Of course, if you would like to request additional loans, you can contact us.
Work-Study
Students typically have work study in their financial aid offer.
If you're eligible for work-study, we'll include it in your aid offer, and amounts vary depending on your year in school and the results of your aid application. You may receive either Federal Work-Study or Duke Work-Study, depending on the results of your FAFSA application.
Grant
Once we've squared away your loans and work study, the rest of your financial aid offer will be grant/scholarship aid. So if you're receiving $50,000 in aid, we'll subtract any federal loans and work-study included in your offer, and the rest of the amount you'll need to cover your cost will be issued in grants or scholarships.
Your grant/scholarship aid may be called "Duke Grant" or have a different name, depending on what you're eligible to receive from Duke, the state, or the federal government.