Duke University

Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Its motto is "Eruditio et Religio", meaning "knowledge and faith". Duke University is known for consistently being ranked as one of the most prestigious universities in the United States, and the best university in the American South.

Duke University was founded in 1838 in the modern-day town of Trinity, and moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James Buchanan Duke established The Duke Endowment and the institution changed its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke.

Duke's campus spans over 8,600 acres (3,500 hectares) on three contiguous sub-campuses in Durham as well as a marine lab in Beaufort. The main campus - designed largely by architect Julian Abele - incorporates Gothic architecture with the 210-foot (64-meter) Duke Chapel at the campus' center and highest point of elevation. East Campus, home to all first-years, contains Georgian-style architecture, while the main Gothic-style West Campus 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) away is adjacent to the Medical Center.

The university also administers two concurrent schools in Asia, Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore (established in 2005) and Duke Kunshan University in Kunshan, China (established in 2013).

As of 2019, 13 Nobel laureates and 3 Turing Award winners have been affiliated with the university. Further Duke alumni include 46 Rhodes Scholars and 25 Churchill Scholars. The university has produced the 5th highest number of Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholars of any American university between 1986 and 2015. As of 2019, Duke holds a top-ten position in most national rankings, and has been named the top college for graduate outcomes several years in a row having tied with Harvard University and Yale University. Duke also has been recognized as one of the top three university employers, along with Stanford University and Harvard University.