Hi, I’m an Echols Scholar at UVA currently. I personally love it and love UVA but I thought there was a few things you should know. It’s important to remember that Echols students are only within the College of Arts and Sciences and if you apply and get into the Comm School then you are officially under school record no longer an Echols Scholar. You are still invited to events and in the community regarded as an Echols student but you won’t receive priority registration or exemptions from requirements. However, once you are in the Comm School priority registration doesn’t matter a lot because you have your classes that you have to take and likely the seat is reserved for you or because your Comm School cohort will not be huge you won’t have to fight for a seat in a class. Also, I’m pretty sure the Comm School honors your exemptions of general education requirements of the College but you are still required to do the prerequisites of the Comm School (see the Comm School website for more details). The social scene at UVA is incredibly fun and the school culture is work hard, play hard so you will definitely find people that like to party just as much/not as much as you. Echols students are no exception to that; there are plenty of them who love to go out and plenty who don’t. Plus everyone at UVA is incredibly motivated and academics is a very important to all students at UVA so know you’re among people who love to balance working hard and playing harder. I know Vanderbilt has a lot of prestige but so does McIntire so I don’t know if choosing a school based on prestige matters a ton in your situation. Of course, I am biased towards UVA but I have loved my experience there and Echols does come in handy in your first two years for priority registration for the Comm School prerequisites that everyone wants to get into.