Anonymous wrote:No requirements is huge. HUGE.

+1

I was in a program like that in the 80s at Northwestern. Awesome.

Anonymous wrote:If there's no merit aid, what's the point? Is it that you get first pick of classes, since I've heard UVA classes can fill up?

I was an echols scholar back in the 90s and yes, the first pick of classes was pretty great. You could get into your pick of the most coveted first-year seminars (small classes for freshman, given by star professors). And you never had to worry about getting locked out of a class, ever. No requirements was nice too.

No requirements is huge. HUGE.

It was very prestigious in my day--early 90s—coming out of a big box FCPS high school.

Anonymous wrote:If there's no merit aid, what's the point? Is it that you get first pick of classes, since I've heard UVA classes can fill up?

Students don't have to do gen ed requirements so can jump right into interests. Makes it easier to double major and explore some too.
Get to live in a dorm of fellow Echols students.
Certain events are held for Echols students and additional opportunities are bound to come their way.
Echols is a designation they keep -- nothing to maintain it (no special class requirements or anything).
Get a benefit of early class registration - just for their class year, not the whole student body.

Anonymous wrote:Not directly related, but I lived in the dorm named "Echols" my first year and was not an Echols scholar, but everyone asked if I was.

DD lives in Echols right now and gets asked this all the time!

Not directly related, but I lived in the dorm named "Echols" my first year and was not an Echols scholar, but everyone asked if I was.

If there's no merit aid, what's the point? Is it that you get first pick of classes, since I've heard UVA classes can fill up?