The Class of 2028’s first year: Use of academic and health resources, other amenities

Editor's note: This story is part of a series about the Class of 2028 based on a survey conducted by The Chronicle in March and April 2025. You can read more about our methodology and limitations here or read all our survey coverage here.

Duke encourages its students to find a balance between academics and overall well-being, providing various resources and amenities in an effort to help them do so.

Nearly all members of the Class of 2028 — 97.3% — reported taking advantage of at least one such Duke-supplied resource. But while usage of academic and physical health resources was widespread, students’ use of Duke’s mental health resources lagged behind.

Academic resources

Academics are central to the Duke experience, and almost 85% of respondents in The Chronicle’s survey of the Class of 2028 reported using at least one of the listed academic resources.

They included Ask a Librarian; the Career Center; Directors of Academic Engagement; GRE/MCAT Prep; LD/ADHD Support; Learning Consultations; Office of Health Professions Advising; other pre-professional advising; pregraduate advising; the STEM Advancement through Group Engagement Program (SAGE); Student Disability Access Office; Study Connect at the Academic Resource Center; Subject Specialists at Duke Libraries and the Thompson Writing Program writing studio.

The Thompson Writing Program’s writing studio was the most commonly used offering, as in last year’s survey, though the proportion of first-year students who reported using it increased from 17.9% to 42.9%. The Career Center was the next most-used resource at 29.5%, up from 13.2% last year. TWP is required for some first-year writing courses, and The Chronicle’s survey did not distinguish between required and voluntary use.

The Class of 2028 generally used resources that were tailored to their intended field of study. For example, the Office of Health Professions Advising and SAGE saw greater use from students interested in natural sciences. Other programs geared toward all students, such as the TWP writing studio and subject specialists at Duke Libraries, saw more even distributions.

Health and wellness resources

The Class of 2028 reported widespread use of Duke’s physical health resources, but their use of mental health resources was considerably lower.

Our survey listed the following campus physical health and wellness resources: activities at the Wellness Center, Arts Annex, Campus Pharmacy, Campus Smiles Dentistry, diet and nutrition lecture courses, Feed Every Devil food point bank, nutrition services at Student Health, Outdoor Adventures with Personal Trips, Student Health, and group fitness classes and weight/exercise rooms at Wilson or Brodie Recreation Center.

The vast majority of respondents, 94.6%, reported using at least one of these resources. The most popular by far were the weight and exercise rooms at Wilson or Brodie, which nearly three in four respondents said they had used — up from 65% of respondents in last year’s survey. Student Health services at the Wellness Center came in second, used by nearly half of respondents.

Use of Duke’s mental health resources among students was low. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they had not used any of the listed mental health resources which included: Blue Devils Care, Counseling and Psychological Services, DukeReach, DukeLine, DuWell, Peer for You and the Two-Click to Connect Form.

Those who did use mental health resources reported using Counseling and Psychological Services the most, at 19.6%.

We also asked students how they discovered the academic, physical health and wellness, and mental health resources they reported using. Respondents could select multiple options.

“Word of mouth” was cited the most at 77.7%. All sources received fewer mentions than in last year’s survey.

Study spaces

The renovation of Lilly Library shifted many first-years’ study preferences from East Campus to West Campus.

Seventy-two percent of those surveyed from the Class of 2028 said they preferred to to study and do homework on West Campus, as opposed to East Campus. Last year, that sentiment was shared by 56% of respondents. 

Duke’s multi-year renovation of Lilly Library, which serves as the central library space on East campus, began in spring 2024, rendering the library closed for the entire duration of the Class of 2028’s residence. In September, several then-first-years reported studying in their dorms or common rooms, or opting to make the trip to West Campus to use Perkins Library or the Brodhead Center instead. 

Later in March, members of the Class of 2028 reflected on how the renovation — alongside a slew of other construction campus projects — had impacted their experience, with some noting that a lack of study spaces and regular noise disruptions made it difficult to study on East Campus.

Social habits seemed to influence whether students gravitated toward West Campus or other locations on East Campus to study.

Respondents who said they primarily found community from their clubs or other extracurriculars preferred studying on West Campus at a higher rate than those who found community primarily from their dorm.

Students who reported a strong sense of community at their East Campus dorm were slightly more likely to prefer to study on East Campus than those who reported little to no sense of dorm community.

Food points

The meal plan assigned to all first-year students seemed to have sufficient food points for most members of the Class of 2028. More than half of respondents — 62.5% — said they did not run out of food points before the end of the fall semester. About 29.5% said they had “many food points left over.”

Household income appeared to play a role in students’ food point spending. Respondents at both the lowest and highest ends of the income spectrum were more likely to run out of food points in the fall: 46.2% of students from families earning under $40,000 reported running out, as did 58.1% of those from families earning $500,000 or more.

For the first time, we asked students about their usage of equivalency: the system by which first-year students can replace a breakfast or dinner meal swipe at Marketplace, the East Campus dining hall, with an allotment of food points to be used at certain dining vendors during specified times.

Over half of our respondents said they used breakfast equivalency multiple times per week, while 5.8% said they had never used it. Use of dinner equivalency was similarly common, with just over half of respondents saying they used dinner equivalency multiple times per week. Only 3.6% had never used it.