Yes, and there may be several advantages to doing so for both fall and spring entrants.

Duke’s major recruiting season takes place in the fall semester and begins just weeks after new fall matriculates join the program.  By extending the program for another semester, students can concentrate on assimilating to the program and exploring companies during the first fall and participating in fall recruiting in the second.  

International students who begin the program in the spring are not able to complete an internship in the US during the following summer as they must be in F-1 status for 9 months beforehand (see Internship FAQs).  Extending the program to another semester allows these students to complete an internship during their second spring semester, or they may find a full-time job during the fall recruiting season and use the first three months of employment to satisfy their internship requirement. 

Students entering in the fall or spring may also extend the program to take additional classes.

As an international student, staying a third or fourth semester should be based on your academic interests and career goals. If there are courses that you did not have the time to take within the one year time period, or if you feel that four courses per semester coupled with our workshop and seminar series would overload you, then, by all means, you should stay a third or fourth semester. Your job search will also benefit from staying a third or fourth semester because it is difficult to begin a program and immediately begin refining your job search which is a very time-intensive activity and requires significant skill development.

Please note that the program cannot allow academic decisions to be based on whether or not an international student has yet found a job or wants to change the timing of training extensions. This means that if you choose to stay an extra semester or two, you must continue to take classes as a full time student and cannot simply stay to continue your job search. Full time means that you must register for at least three 3 courses worth a minimum of 9 total credits. If you are in your last semester before receiving your degree, you must register for at least two 2 courses worth a minimum of 6 total credits.

Duke's MEM Program is available on a part-time basis, with about 10% of our students choosing this option. The program consistently offers several electives and at least one section of the core courses during late afternoon hours to make it easier for part-time students (and their managers), and the majority of our courses meet only once per week, which is very convenient for working students.  Some technical electives offered by other departments meet twice per week, and of course, students sometimes find that they're interested in a mid-day course, but the hope is that these students can work out a flexible schedule with their managers.  See http://www.siss.duke.edu/schedule/ for actual semester listings; our courses are offered under the symbol EGRMGMT.

If a student does not plan to take any classes for 1 year, the program requires that they request a leave of absence.

Graduate courses taken at other schools but not used for another degree may be used, with the MEM Director's permission, to fulfill Duke's core required courses (including Law, Marketing, Management, and Finance), but all students are required to take 8 total courses at Duke, plus the internship requirement and two semesters of the seminar/workshop series. For example, if a student has taken a course that satisfies the requirements of a core course, then the student would only have to take the 3 remaining core courses and could then take 5 technical electives instead of the usual 4.  Read more about our course requirements.

In short, previous graduate engineering courses that were not used for another degree may give students a bit more leeway in the types of courses taken at Duke, but they do not decrease the total number.