See Duke University Pre-College Programs for information on our programs.
Duke has a long history of providing opportunities for talented middle and high school students to gain exposure to rigorous academic coursework and to communities of talented peers. Many of these opportunities were facilitated by Duke TIP, which was established in 1980 and provided valuable academic enrichment opportunities for several generations of pre-college students. Duke Youth Programs has also provided a range of engaging summer programs for more than 20 years.
In more recent years, both technology and demographic trends have transformed best practices for identifying talented middle- and high-school students and approaches to helping them develop their talents for future success. Duke TIP was a national leader in that transformation, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated our efforts to better integrate Duke’s core strengths of academic rigor, student engagement and community into our pre-college programming. The pandemic also significantly disrupted the Duke TIP and Duke Youth Programs business models, which were based on providing a high-quality, campus-based, intensive residential experience to large numbers of students, and led us to make the difficult decision in 2020 to suspend these residential programs.
Since then, we have been developing plans to align Duke’s pre-college programming with the university’s world-class strengths in teaching, learning and discovery. Our goal is to provide outstanding pre-college experiences, taught by Duke faculty and Duke graduate students on Duke’s campus, and in academic fields aligned with great Duke research. To facilitate this transition, all Duke pre-college programming has been consolidated within Duke Continuing Studies. We look forward to, once again, serving talented middle and high school students in residential summer programming beginning in summer 2022.
Equally important, Duke is eager to expand our definition of “talented” to maximize access to our signature academic rigor and to strengthen our growing community. The pandemic has challenged us in many ways, but has also provided opportunities for us to hone what we do best: providing deep, rigorous academic opportunities for talented students to explore, to grow, to build community, and to showcase their talents. We look forward to engaging with our longtime friends and supporters as we make this transition and continue to share the best of Duke with talented youth.