<p>Question for you. Echols seems to be a good deal. Priority registration, a little prestige, "social opportunities"--whatever that means; what does that mean?</p>
<p>Anyway, is it a common thing that Echols students choose it over an Ivy League school, even a TOP ivy?</p>
<p>Good question!</p>
<p>I am in the same boat - accepted as an Echols Scholar and waiting to hear from a couple of Ivies.</p>
<p>Echols or Rodman Scholar PLUS in state tuition, that would be a tough sell to a parent versus most Ivies. My nef chose UVA, brother went to Columbia, both got 173 on LSATs... Georgetown law student now. So what was the Columbia $120,000 extra worth, nada... Food for thought...</p>
<p>Well, financial issues aside, what other considerations might be important when deciding between Echols and an Ivy?</p>
<p>i'm in the same boat!
well actually... i'm happy with echol's and i think of hearing from ivies is like.. the bonus round!! it would be nice to get 4 thin envelopes and not have to make a difficult decision.
but if not, any advice?</p>
<p>I am in that in-state Echols situation and am waiting to hear from Brown, Columbia, Northwestern, Princeton, and Yale. My parents, perhaps surprisingly, totally support Ivy over Echols (and we are not in a "money doesn't matter" situation). I am psyched about the open curriculum that Brown and Echols provide but am also totally at a loss about the quality of echols vs the other schools. Any tips?</p>
<p>Btw, I actually live IN Charlottesvilee, so UVa is basically in my backyard (a bit of a drawback). Also, I have only visited Columbia and Princeton (UVa, duh) but I have an overnight at Brown scheduled for April 7th, provided that I get in! (arghhh!)</p>
<p>I can't stress how great Echols is... I would say the freedom from area requirements is really secondary to the priority registration, since most Echols scholars have already completed a good portion of the area requirements through APs and SATIIs. </p>
<p>Priority registration, though, means that by your second semester at the University, you're in small seminars with the University's top faculty. I took advantage of this by taking an upper-division politics seminar in the Spring of my first year. I worked hard, and went to the professor's office hours often. By the end of the semester he'd offered me a <em>paid</em> position as a research assistant for the summer. He kept me on through this year, and has just offered me the job for another year.</p>
<p>It also means you can take small classes right off the bat even if you aren't in the department. As a second year, I've taken seminars in sociology, environmental science, and history, and I'm majoring in politics and economics!</p>
<p>There are also other perks to being echols (scheduled dinners with faculty, getting assigned the top advisors in the school). </p>
<p>I should mention that the priority registration doesn't kick in until the Spring semester of your first year (it can't work for the fall, since rising 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years have already registered for spring classes before 1st years have even gone through orientation), but you still get priority over the other first years, which is important since there are First Year seminars (with, for instance, Prof. Julian Bond, Chairman of the NAACP). </p>
<p>Anyway, PM me if you have any specific questions.</p>
<p>Princeton vs UVA Echols. What would you pick? (my financial aid package for Princeton has me only paying 4000 in form of term time work and summer contribution, havent gotten my UVA financial aid award but anticipate to be the same or maybe better)</p>
<p>maybe i'm crazy but princeton, duh, even if UVa finaid is better. u should know that as an echols you will be hated by a lot of regular UVa-ers b/c you're taking all the good classes and you're a "snob" 'coz you live in a nice dorm (people will try to contradict this, but it's the sad truth). okay, so "hate" is a strong word (not far from the truth, tho). at princeton, everyone's (presumably) smart so no one's gonna hate on you. they also have the preceptorials so you get the small seminars if you want. anyway, whatever you decide, congrats on the great choices!! =)</p>
<p>taurustorus does not know what he's talking about.</p>
<p>First, Echols housing is neither worse nor better than everyone elses housing - it's just a bit different since you're with all echols and rodman scholars. I challenge you [taurustorus] to find a single person at U.Va. who is jealous of the Echols program for its housing.</p>
<p>Second, people will not "hate" you as long as you don't go around yelling "HEHE, I'M IN A SMALL UPPER LEVEL SEMINAR AS A FIRST YEAR AND YOU ARE NOT." A good chunk of the incoming class hasn't even heard of the program. No one is going to "hate on you" for being an Echols Scholar, as long as you're modest about it. </p>
<p>taurustorus - do you even know what a "preceptorial" is? It's the equivalent of a SECTION, which all lecture courses at U.Va. have as well. As an Echols Scholar, you're going to have access to the upper-level seminars that you would at Princeton.</p>
<p>Princeton is a great school, and I've got a lot of friends who love it there... but I know at least as many people who chose Echols over it.</p>
<p>i turned down the combination of the jefferson and echols for yale. personally, i believe that yale offers me the best possible undergrad experience, on top of an incredible education. in the end, i based my decision upon a gut reaction. </p>
<p>uva is a big, public state university- one of the best, but public nonetheless. yale (in your case, princeton) is one of the top universities in the world. plus, its small enough that you won't have to fight to get into the classes that you want. comparably, you'll be battling against 3,300 of your fellow first years for that econ 201 class. believe me, i asked tons of people about registration, and no one said it was a problem at yale. </p>
<p>so, if you've visited both (princeton visitation days were last week?), forget logic and go with your gut. i've never been happier with a decision</p>
<p>jessz, the registration thing wouldn't be a problem for you. Echols scholars get priority registration for everything.</p>
<p>i know, i meant that registering for classes isnt a big issue at ivy's- and the priority registration is the major perk of being an echols, so the echols thing shouldn't factor into the decision of princeton vs. uva</p>
<p>You must really like Yale to turn that (those) down.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Anyway, is it a common thing that Echols students choose it over an Ivy League school, even a TOP ivy?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You can figure it out if you know how many Echols students there are vs. how many names were on the email list. I know that for Rodman, using last year's roster and this year's list, the yeild is around 36%.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that there are plenty of kids who get into Ivy League schools and don't get into UVa. I personally know people who weren't admitted into UVa and ended up at Columbia, Cornell, and Penn (as well as Stanford).</p>
<p>When I went to the Scholars Day on the Lawn earlier this month, the only two students I talked to had both turned down Harvard for Echols. I’m not sure how representative that is, but it seemed odd to me. I’m waitlisted at Harvard and was rejected at Yale and Cornell, but I got into the Echols and may stay there even if Harvard lets me in somehow. Tough choice, but I never really liked Princeton anyways.</p>
<p>It depends on which Ivies. I picked UVA (without Echols or better financial aid) over Cornell and so did a few people I met at UVA (I met a couple who chose UVA over Penn as well). If it’s UVA Echols vs. Cornell or Dartmouth, I’d say Echols all the way. UVA Echols vs. Penn or Brown…a little trickier. UVA Echols vs. HYP…well HYP, unless money is an issue.</p>
<p>PS: The person who offered the UVA vs. Columbia example and how both graduates ended up at the same place; I completely agree. In my graduate cohort at Stanford, I am tired of hearing people complain how much undergraduate debt they have (two girls went to Duke and one went to Rice). The funny thing is that we all ended up at Stanford…and we all do just as well in our PhD courses. There is one difference though. While I can blow half of my stipend buying luxury goods and flying to Paris for spring break, they have to carefully manage it to keep paying their student loans and choose the crappiest grad student dorms on campus. I guess that’s what their added prestige is costing them…thank god I didn’t go to UChicago.</p>
<p>People are so caught up on the “Ivy” name. I applied to a bunch of Ivy’s and UVA was my obvious first choice. You’ll probably ignore me on this, but don’t pick a school just because it is an Ivy.</p>
<p>I would have picked Yale or Harvard over UVa Echols in a heartbeat had I not been rejected. Dartmouth would have been tricky, and Brown may have been a little bit of a tough choice. The rest of the Ivies wouldn’t have been tough to give up for UVa Echols.</p>
<p>EDIT: I agree with UVAorBust. Don’t pick it just because it’s an Ivy, pick it because it’s where you want to be.</p>
<p>Don’t forget about the competition at the ivies. The ivies are notorious for cutthroat competition. I’m not saying UVA has no competition, but it is not near the level of ivy leagues. Princeton caps each class to having 35% of the students to receive an A. There is GPA inflation at all of the ivies, and UVA itself, but the competition to benefit from that inflation is rough at ivies. </p>
<p>Think more about where you fit in, and less about prestige and things. Money is also pretty important. bbpilot1 had a very good case: one child went to Columbia, one went to UVA. Both scored the same on the LSAT, which is the most important factor of getting into law school. So, the education value at UVA vs. the ivies is certainly not different in quality. It may be different in style (larger class sizes initially). But having the Echols Scholar basically alleviates most of those problems…</p>