Duke University is a private institution that was founded in 1838. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 6,717 (fall 2020), and the setting is Suburban. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Duke University's ranking in the 2022 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, #9. Its tuition and fees are $60,489.

Durham, North Carolina, which surrounds Duke's campus, offers a variety of activities including shopping, dining and entertainment. Its "Bull City" nickname comes from the Blackwell Tobacco Company's Bull Durham Tobacco. Students at Duke are required to live on campus for their first three years, and freshmen live together on the East Campus. The Duke Blue Devils maintain a fierce rivalry with the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill Tar Heels and are best known for their outstanding men's basketball program, which is one of the top five most wins all-time college basketball programs in the country. Approximately 30 percent of the student body is affiliated with Greek life, which encompasses almost 40 fraternities and sororities.