The new application year is upon us at Fuqua, and we’re excited for what we hope will be a return to ‘normal’ after two years of disruption caused by the pandemic. When our Admissions team reviews the application each year, our goal is to ensure the process is as straightforward and stress-free for applicants as possible. We think you will see the results of those efforts this year.  Additionally, we want the MBA experience to be accessible to everyone, so we are excited to share a new scholarship program as well!  Read on to learn about the changes you’ll see when the updated Duke MBA application goes live on July 7, 2022.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Concentration

We’ve launched a new academic concentration—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—that will join the 16 we have offered in the past. These optional concentrations allow students to specialize their education and further refine the business and leadership skills they feel are critical to their intended career path. The new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion concentration is relevant for any student who will need to effectively lead diverse teams towards common purpose. Applicants will have the option to select it under the other concentrations and certificates section of the application.

A Qualifying STEM Program

While Fuqua has offered a Management Science and Technology Management (MSTeM) track for several years, the Daytime MBA program itself is now considered STEM-qualifying by U.S. authorities, providing all international students the benefit of a two-year STEM optional practical training (OPT) extension.

Fuqua Impact Scholars

We’re really excited to introduce our Fuqua Impact Scholars program! It will be a set of named, merit-based scholarships for high-potential admitted students who intend to make an impact on the world through business with a focus area that is tied to one of our research centers. These scholars will have the opportunity to attend special events with faculty, staff, and distinguished speakers, and will have access to specific resources provided by the centers most closely affiliated with their focus area.

As with our other merit scholarships, everyone is considered upon applying to the Daytime or Accelerated Daytime MBA programs—a separate application is not required. Fuqua Impact Scholars will be awarded in the following categories:

• Health Care, tied to the Center for Health Sector Management (HSM)
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation, tied to the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI)
• Leadership, tied to the Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership & Ethics (COLE)
• Energy and Sustainability, tied to the Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment (EDGE)
• Social Impact, tied to the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE)

Letter of Recommendation

We made a change a couple of years back to require only one letter of recommendation with the application, but we retained the option for applicants to provide a second one if they would like. We are removing the second optional recommendation this year, and will only accept one letter of recommendation. We think this will cause less confusion and angst for applicants who might be wondering if the optional one is really needed or not, and create a more level playing field for applicants since only one letter will accompany each application.  If applicants would like to have additional endorsements submitted, we have other mechanisms for that including the student/alumni endorsement form, as well as an alumni referral form—both of which can be found in the alumni volunteers resources section of our website.

Reapplicant Interviews

To avoid confusion and to allow all applicants the opportunity to be fully prepared to interview, we will no longer offer a separate interview period if you’re reapplying from the previous year. Instead, reapplicants are encouraged to interview during our Open Interview Period. If you don’t opt for this, you’ll be included for consideration during the interviews by invitation period after each round. Additionally, we will continue to offer the ability to clone a previous application, and will provide an application fee waiver for reapplicants. We do encourage reapplicants to provide updates to essays and test scores to increase their competitiveness.

Interview Formats

The pandemic enabled us to create more opportunities to meet applicants where they are and to offer flexible and more economic options for interviewing. Therefore, we will offer both on-campus and virtual interview options during the Open Interview Period and for interviews by invitation after each round.

Application Fee Waivers

We value your time, and we recognize it’s an investment for you to take the time to get to know Fuqua. In recognition of that, we continue to offer application fee waivers for applicants who attend a Fuqua event in the year of application.  This year, we have also added the opportunity for Duke alumni who are applying to any of our graduate business programs to receive an application fee waiver.

Additional Changes and Information

Our Admissions truly wants to get to know our applicants as well as we can, so in an effort to improve our understanding, this year we will be asking our applicants to record a video pronouncing their first and last names. Don’t worry, it’s not a trick question – we want to ensure that we pronounce our students’ names correctly throughout their journey with us as applicants and students.

Applicants to our one-year Accelerated Daytime MBA we are offering the ability to apply in Rounds 1, 2 and 3 this year. In prior years we only accepted applications in Rounds 2 and 3.

We’ll be resuming our on-campus visit program this fall, and off-campus travel schedule starting this summer, going to cities in the U.S. and around the world to conduct recruitment events. Here is our full events list. We hope to see you soon!