<p>Duke does offer merit based scholarships to freshman and there is no need to apply for these. Everyone who applies to Duke is considered for these scholarships.</p>
<p>The problem is that these are VERY competitive. About 2-3% of the incoming class receive merit based scholarships. Duke does not do partial scholarships with these students, anyone who is granted one of these scholarships receives a full scholarship (books, tuition, food, housing, summer grant money for summer school, etc). </p>
<p>The economics program is very popular at Duke. Like the poster above me said it is very math/theory oriented. Many econ majors minor in math because you are required to take a fair amount of math in order to obtain your BS (rather than BA). And obviously, there is strong recruiting at Duke. From banks to consulting firms, to graduate schools, you can find everything you need.</p>