The Undergraduate Experience
You’ll Do More than Learn. You’ll Transform.
You’ve already got a spark burning inside you. You wouldn’t be reading this if that wasn’t true. Whether it’s a passion for discovery or invention or saving lives or anything else that impacts the world, Duke will help grow that spark into a blazing fire that lasts a lifetime. The transformation starts in your very first semester, when you try on the identity of an engineer with a hands-on design challenge.
Design Your Degree
Over your time at Duke, you’ll build skills, gain knowledge and grow in confidence. You’ll have transformative experiences. You could travel to Bolivia and build a bridge for a remote village. You could do meaningful research on quantum computing here in Durham, working alongside a faculty mentor.
As you interact with a network of supportive faculty and advisors to pick a major and consider a minor or a certificate program, you’ll customize a degree that fits who you are and will take you wherever your sense of purpose drives you.
Explore Duke Engineering
Organizations and Clubs
Our student-led clubs and teams design machines that race, fly, swim and dive. (There’s a fighting robot or two in the mix as well.) They’re pushing envelopes of efficiency, performance and autonomy—and providing engineering in service to neighbors in need, here in Durham and around the world.
Your First Year
You’ll never forget that August morning when you first entered a Duke Engineering maker space. I could make anything with all these tools. But where to start? Start here: EGR 101, or First-Year Design. During your first week at Duke, you’ll join a student team assigned to prototype a solution to a real-world challenge.
EGR 101 is just one part of our intentionally designed First-Year Experience. FYE equips you with the essential skills you’ll use daily at Duke. And, yes, there are laser cutters and mechatronics, too. Browse our first-year courses.
Authentic Research Opportunities
Hands-on experiences come in many formats—including authentic research opportunities with faculty that increase in depth and impact over four years.
We’ll help you land that summer research experience abroad. Or you can take advantage of programs that place you alongside our world-class faculty.
Two exceptional experiences that juniors and seniors can consider are the Katsouleas NAE Grand Challenges Scholars Program and the Pratt Research Fellowships.
Experiences Beyond Duke
Global Education
Greater than 1-in-6 Duke Engineering students widen their perspective through study outside the United States.
In recent years, Duke has designed global experiences in Costa Rica, Germany, Italy and Spain expressly for our engineering students. Explore study abroad for Duke engineering students.
Internships & Recruiting
We love seeing our graduates land incredible jobs at industry-leading companies. We love seeing them return to campus to recruit the next generation of engineers even more.
Our Industry Relations team builds and maintains relationships with leading employers in part through an uncommonly well-connected web of alumni and introduces them to students during on-campus visits and at our TechConnect recruiting events.
Our team will even help you develop a personal internship search plan. Learn more at the Duke Career Hub.
Amenities & Resources
Great endings start with solid beginnings. At Duke, you’ll be surrounded by 360 degrees of support from a network of people you can lean on—especially during your first year. The transition to college life is critical, and our undergraduates receive mentorship from caring faculty, staff and experienced students.
To get you started, we’ve put together this handy list of resources focused on the undergraduate experience.
