The Duke ideal is a small number of superior students working closely with esteemed scholars.
Graduate study is, in many ways, an apprenticeship.
Graduate work takes time and patience, a fierce commitment, and the willingness to make many personal sacrifices. Translate the small, private character of each of Duke's departmental environments to the context of graduate study and what you find is a special partnership between graduate student and faculty-an intimate collegiality and common purpose driven by the twin goals of creativity and innovation. Maximum personal attention, smaller, more involving classes, and richer cross-disciplinary possibilities for scholarship generally characterize the Duke graduate student's relationship with faculty. To this end, Duke looks for graduate students who are creative, venturesome, and unwilling to accept worn-out answers. Graduate students are a needed leavening in any academic community.