I was deeply honored to have been accepted to both prestigious universities; however, I am having difficulty over which one to choose. Should I go for UVA as an Echols Scholar or should I attend UPenn? Both have benefits and it’s really hard to decide. Ironically, Penn provided greater financial aid than UVA did but through the Echols Scholar and AP Credits I would be able to receive credit for courses faster.
What do you want to study? What aspects are important to you? That info will allow people to provide a better response to you.
If Penn is cheaper I’d go with Penn. 
I’m facing a similar choice. One big advantage of the Echols program for me is not being constrained by a core curriculum. But the atmosphere at UVA might be too “southern prep” for me, although when I visited everyone was very nice and seemed happy.
Are there any current Echols scholars on here who can share their experience? Most of the Echols threads are from a few years ago.
I plan on studying Political Science. I want to go to a university where the students are nice and have fun overall, not just on their books all day long you know?
My daughter was very worried about southern prep but she has loved UVA. UVA has a well deserved reputation as a place where students study hard and take school very seriously but also enjoy partying.
You might also look at UVa’s Batten School of Public Policy and Leadership. My son graduated from there, and really liked the program. It was more analytical and less oriented towards partisan electoral politics than the typical political science classes. Admissions are competitive - you apply during your 2nd year. The class sizes are reasonable (25 to 40 students), the profs are excellent, the program is very well funded (thanks to a $100 million gift from Mr. Batten who started the Weather Channel), and it is very easy to register for the classes that you want.
There was only one Batten class that my son could not get into, because it was full. He said it was a welcome relief to be able to register for all of the classes and sections that he wanted in 4 minutes.
Unfortunately, it is not always so easy to get the Government and Politics classes that you want. However, the Politics dept. professors are highly rated by students.
My son was recruited on Grounds by a federal agency a few months before he graduated, and he has a great job with significant responsibilities. He just needed to be careful to warn his friends at UVa in advance that when a guy came around asking security clearance questions, IT WAS NOT A JOKE.
Many years ago, I attended UVa undergrad and Penn for grad school. I really like Phila. and the University City neighborhood around Penn, which has greatly improved over the last 15 years. However, I loved the social life and activities much more at UVa. At the time, Penn and some of the profs were a little too pretentious for my tastes.
One more item - the Southern prep attitude has been greatly diluted over the years. It used to be prominent. However, now there are so many international students and students from other regions of the country. Also, Virginia is an extremely diverse state, with huge numbers of residents who were not born in Virginia. Many in-state students have parents who were immigrants (particularly from South Asia and East Asia), or who moved around the country as part of military service.
How difficult is it to get into Batten? What kind of GPA does it require?
I read some data that said that it had gotten more difficult in the past two years, but I don’t remember where I read that.
When my son was applying, the Batten staff was very responsive in responding to emails.
By the way, Batten added 6 new professors in the fall of 2016.