<p>I received a phone call from a current Echols scholar on behalf of the "Echols Program." I'm assuming that it's a hint that "You're in." She told me about the program and invited me to a meeting of prospective Echols students at "Fridays on the Lawn." Has anyone else gotten a call?</p>
<p>Did you also get that letter that everyone's been getting?</p>
<p>Yeah...I did... (apparently the message needs to be at least 10 characters)</p>
<p>Wow no I haven't gotten that.
I got a phone call before getting the letter but it wasn't about echols specifically. It was just like a recruiting person asking me if I had questions and telling me about the Monroe Society if I wanted to visit...</p>
<p>I'm still interested in whether anyone else has been called by a rep but I am also curious about what others think about the Echols program. A post from a current Echols scholar stated that "The Echols program at UVA is better than any other college in America." Now, while I doubt that, I want to know what you all think about it and whether you would choose Echols over acceptanct to, say, Columbia or Brown (which has a similar "open" curriculum).</p>
<p>(we'll also have to pretend for a moment that the tuition at those schools isn't about 4x UVa's)</p>
<p>wow I'm so embarassed because I know nothing about UVa. Didn't get to visit and haven't done that much research. It has an open curriculum? </p>
<p>I'd still choose an ivy over Echols, but more because Brown and Columbia are smaller schools and I feel like I'd get more attention there.</p>
<p>Didn't mean to confuse you, UVa itself does not have an open curriculum but one does as an Echols Scholar (no requirements to fulfill, easy self-made majors, absolute priority in class selection, and a couple other perks).</p>
<p>Oooh
that's really awesome. Makes UVa more attractive to me.</p>
<p>Although I am no Echols scholar, I do know that Echols scholars do get first priority registration for classes, can make self-made majors and other perks mentioned in the thread. Actually, there was an article written in the UVA paper last semester about whether those "perks" are conflicting with the registration of upper classmen. It's a good program though - alot of people I know who are Echols scholars definitely get a lot of benefits that I don't get. I'm just happy I got into UVA as an out of state student regardless of not being chosen as an Echols scholar.</p>