<p>After that, you're on your own for things like toilet paper, paper towels, and keeping things clean in bathrooms. </p>
<p>First years are so spoiled. Walking to classes takes 5-10 minutes. Walking to the dining hall (which is brand new) takes 1-2 minutes. The laundry place is about 1-2 minutes away. </p>
<p>The only other place that offers this kind of close proximity to central campus is Brown Residential College. You can apply there as a first year but you don't get to live in an Echols dorm. However, once you're in Brown, you're in until you graduate. You get a single big room all to yourself and you're literally in the center of campus. Their application is full of quirky and creativity questions (example: Save a princess from a burning tower using only duck tape. Explain your strategy.)</p>
<p>Being close to classes is really convenient. Where I currently live, still considered ongrounds, I have to prepare at least 20 minutes for the walk to class and bring a whole day's worth of books w/ me because I probably won't have time to go home in between classes. </p>
<p>So it's really important to live in the center of campus if you don't like to wake up early or carry a lot of books.</p>
<p>I got in as well :). I'm so happy, especially since I got rejected from MIT on Saturday, which was my first choice. I'm an OOS applicant; I visited last April and fell in love. The people there are so nice, and I hear Echols is really good. I'm excited and there's a good chance I'll end up going there. I'll see you guys on Echols Day!</p>
<p>sam42149 my case is sorta like yours. In the same weekend I got Accepted with Echols to UVA, but got rejected from MIT and Caltech. Im International living instate. Despite the fact that UVA is an awesome school, I am still awaiting to here from the Ivies because for us International Student tuition at UVA is over $33000, with no opportunity for scholarship or financial aid. Whereas in the Ivies there is guarantee for Fin aid. However with a rejection from MIT and Caltech, an acceptance to any Ivy seems farfetched. Well congrats to my fellow Echols. My coming to Echols Day is dependent on the news I receive from the Ivies on March 30th. Good luck.</p>
<p>"However with a rejection from MIT and Caltech, an acceptance to any Ivy seems farfetched. Well congrats to my fellow Echols."</p>
<p>That's not true at all. The lower ivies are less competitive than MIT/caltech, and even if they were on the same level, nothing says you wouldn't get into at least one.</p>
<p>If anyone has any specific questions about the Echols program, feel free to ask them here or to IM me at cavalier302.</p>
<p>cavalier, could you answer my earlier question about whether it would be to my liking to accept Echols? I intend to major in astronomy and the website said Echols may be disadvantageous to those needing a solid undergraduate background.</p>
<p>How would Echols be disadvantageous to you? The Echols program is about opening up opportunities for the top students, not closing them. Perhaps you misread the site. Anyway, I wouldn't let what you think you're intended major will be stop you from anything. Students very often come to college thinking one thing and leaving it majoring in something different.</p>
<p>Chipset, echols would be a great program for you. You're obviously smart, and I'm assuming you've read a little bit about the program, so think about it: an academic designation that gives you total freedom over what courses you take. How does would that not be advantageous to someone needing a solid ugrad background? What they may be referring to is that you'd have no requirement to take distribution requirements, and you could, conceivably, take only math, astronomy, and physics classes for 4 years. As sv3a said, the program is all about giving advantages to top students. Why would they want to give top students an inferior ugrad background?</p>
<p>Ah, I understand now. Jeanay said exactly what I needed to know. Thank you cavalier and sv3a for your responses; I did misread the website. It sounds perfect now.</p>
<p>jeanay, very few people, in fact, choose the Echols Interdisciplinary Major. In fact, it's only around 10-15%. It's a fine major for those headed to an academic (non professional) graduate program, but for others, it's probably not entirely suitable.</p>
<p>amnesia, being a Rodman Scholar (or anyone in the engineering school, for that matter) means that, in addition to the rigorous curriculum of the e-school, you'll be taking the pre-med requirements. In addition to that, engineers tend to have slightly more deflated GPAs, so it's just something else to think about...</p>
<p>I believe Rodman Scholars have to take some additional seminars or something, unlike Echols scholars. Also, I'm not entirely sure if you get as much out of being a Rodman scholar as an Echols scholar, since area reqs and priority registration don't mean much with the E-School mapping out a great deal of your path from what I understand. </p>
<p>I have a friend doing biomed engineering here and is planning to apply to med school. Still, I, and pretty much everyone else, wouldn't recommend this course of action. He's fairly smart and studies a good deal, so he will probably leave college with a competitive GPA to apply (around 3.6-3.8). It's harder to achieve these kinds of numbers in the E-School, so you'll just have to try doubly hard. I don't see how being a Rodman scholar itself helps you, unless there are some area reqs in the E-School you're not already exempt from. However, the fact that you're a Rodman scholar shows that you are already being prioritized over the other E-school students, meaning hopefully you already have the capacity like my friend to excel here and apply to med school.</p>
<p>Can a current Echols student tell me if it's fairly important to attend the summer orientation designated for Echols or if any of the other dates are ok? What is done specifically for Echols at summer orientation? Also is Echols Day on the Lawn more to convince someone to accept? Since my S has his mind made up, we may skip the April 7 date.</p>
<p>Ok, so I've been pretty bummed for about four days now. I live in Virginia and still hadn't received my Echols letter yesterday, which was very telling, in my opinion, because people at my school had already received their letters on Saturday. And then, I open up my mail box today and there is a letter from UVA, inviting me to the Echols honors program. I'd already told everybody at school that I hadn't received a letter (they asked), so I guess I'll have to untell them tomorrow. ;-)</p>
<p>studious mom, nothing particularly out of the ordinary is done at either Echols DOTL or the Echols summer orientation dates. The only difference is that there will be only Echols Scholars present and there's normally a talk or two about what it means to be an Echols Scholar and how to maximize the benefits of being in the program. You don't have to go, but if you have no other obligations, it never hurts to attend.</p>
<p>I don't know if they do this on the non Echols summer orientation dates, but when your son registers for classes during orientation he will go in the morning, instead of late morning and afternoon as with the non Echols students. They say they spread out course registration numbers over all the orientation dates, but I'm not sure if that's really true. If he attends on the first or second dates which include Echols scholars then he'll definitely be among the first to register for courses among all first years, for whatever that's worth.</p>