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Duke Law Early Decision is binding, with a November 1 for Round I and January 3 for Round II deadline. No school publishes an ED-specific admit rate, so the honest read here is structural rather than numerical, and every term below is the school's own. Duke admits 12.9 percent overall and gives grants to 94 percent, median $35,000.
Yes. In Duke's own words: "Highly interested candidates may choose to apply through one of two binding Early Decision rounds."
Here is every published term in one place. Everything in this table comes from the school's own admissions pages, verified July 26, 2026.
TermWhat the school publishesProgramBinding early decisionBindingYesDeadlineNovember 1 for round i and january 3 for round iiRoundsTwo roundsDeposit$500 nonrefundable, due no later than ten days after admission notification.Withdrawal obligationImmediately withdraw applications at other law schools, submit no new ones, and pay the deposit within ten days of the admission notification.Effect on scholarshipNo ED scholarship consequence is stated either way. Duke's own page warns that ED is most appropriate if you do not anticipate needing to compare offers of financial aid.Cycle currently postedPrior cycle only, fall 2027 dates not yet posted
Source: https://law.duke.edu/admis/apply/early/. Duke is the stalest page in this set.
Its posted dates are for the 2025 entering class, two cycles back, and the ED contract PDF it links is from the 2008 entering term. Fall 2027 dates are not posted.
Yes, and the obligation is specific. Immediately withdraw applications at other law schools, submit no new ones, and pay the deposit within ten days of the admission notification.
Round I decisions issue by the end of December and Round II by the end of January, with regular decision at February 15.
No school in this set publishes an ED-specific admit rate, so anyone quoting you a percentage boost invented it. What is verifiable is the structural incentive.
Schools manage yield, and a binding commitment removes yield risk entirely. Our read on this school specifically: high. Duke is one of the most yield-protective schools in the T14 and will waitlist very strong applicants.
Set that against the bar you have to clear anyway. Duke admitted 12.9 percent of 6,240 completed applications, at LSAT and GPA medians of 171 and 3.91. A binding promise does not substitute for numbers below those bands.
MetricValueCompleted applications6,240Offers of admission804Acceptance rate12.9%LSAT 25th / 50th / 75th169 / 171 / 172GPA 25th / 50th / 75th3.83 / 3.91 / 3.96Students receiving grants94%Median grant$35,000Annual cost of attendance$113,428
Admissions numbers from Duke's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report (https://law.duke.edu/sites/default/files/news/Std509InfoReport2025.pdf). Program terms from the school's own admissions pages, listed above and verified July 26, 2026.
Binding commitment removes competing offers, and competing offers are the mechanism scholarship negotiation runs on. At Duke, where 94 percent of students receive grants and the median award is $35,000, the question was never whether you get a discount, only how large.
Nothing here offsets that. Duke attaches no named award to early decision, so what you are buying is certainty and speed rather than money.
Run the arithmetic on the annual cost of attendance of $113,428 against the median grant before you sign anything. Since July 1, 2026 federal borrowing for professional programs is capped at $50,000 a year with Grad PLUS eliminated, under the Reimagining and Improving Student Education final rule published May 1, 2026, which attributes the caps to the Working Families Tax Cuts Act (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/01/2026-08556/reimagining-and-improving-student-education-federal-student-loan-program-final-regulations).
The general mechanics live in our scholarship negotiation playbook, and the cross-school comparison sits on our binding early decision table.
Three conditions have to hold at once, and if any one fails the answer is to apply early in regular decision instead. You capture most of the timing benefit and keep every option.
One, Duke is your clear first choice at any realistic price. Two, your numbers sit at or above its medians of 171 and 3.91, so certainty supplements a competitive file rather than substituting for one.
Three, you can finance the outcome at this school's median grant of $35,000 without seeing another offer. That third condition is the one that fails most often and the one applicants skip fastest.
Every date on this page is the date Duke currently publishes, and as of July 26, 2026 that is the prior cycle rather than fall 2027. We say which rather than presenting a stale date as current.
Duke is the stalest page in this set. Its posted dates are for the 2025 entering class, two cycles back, and the ED contract PDF it links is from the 2008 entering term. Fall 2027 dates are not posted.
Re-check in September, when almost every school in this set refreshes. Treat any date you find quoted elsewhere without a cycle label as unverified, including ours once this page ages.
Run these in order and stop at the first no. This is the whole decision, and it takes about twenty minutes with the numbers above in front of you.
One. Would I attend Duke at its median grant of $35,000 against a $113,428 annual budget, without ever seeing another offer? If no, stop here, because that is exactly the position a binding admit puts you in.
Two. Are my numbers at or above 171 and 3.91, so that certainty is supplementing a competitive file rather than being asked to substitute for one?
Three. Have I priced the alternative, meaning the offers I could realistically be holding by March if I waited? Four.
Is my financing sound if the aid outcome disappoints, given the $50,000 annual federal cap? Four yes answers make this defensible and any no is the answer.
Duke does not publish a stated penalty, which is not the reassurance it looks like. The enforcement mechanism in law school admissions is rarely contractual.
Schools talk to each other, and LSAC sits in the middle of every application you file. An applicant who withdraws from a binding commitment is visible to the schools they are trying to move to, which is the real risk rather than a lawsuit.
The narrow legitimate exits are worth knowing. Most schools release you if you are deferred or waitlisted rather than admitted. Read your own school's release language before you file, not after.
Financial hardship is the one exit schools generally entertain, and it is entertained, not guaranteed. If aid is genuinely load-bearing for you, that is an argument against applying binding in the first place rather than a planned escape hatch.
Yes. Two rounds, with a November 1 for Round I and January 3 for Round II deadline as currently posted. Those are prior-cycle dates; fall 2027 dates are not yet posted.
Immediately withdraw applications at other law schools, submit no new ones, and pay the deposit within ten days of the admission notification.
Duke publishes no ED-specific admit rate, so no honest percentage exists. Binding certainty plausibly helps at the margin because schools manage yield, and it does not rescue numbers below a 171 LSAT and 3.91 GPA median.
No ED scholarship consequence is stated either way. Duke's own page warns that ED is most appropriate if you do not anticipate needing to compare offers of financial aid.
$500 nonrefundable, due no later than ten days after admission notification.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
July 30, 2026
July 30, 2026