<p>
</p>
<p>First of all, congrats on your acceptance and second, congrats on Echols Scholar status. No small achievements! </p>
<p>I will leave your first question to others more qualified to respond. As to the second, the answer is most likely ‘yes’ but that does not speak to your particular circumstances. I’d personally be leery of taking on too much undergraduate debt unless I were certain I’d be entering a remunerative profession later on. And for most, imho, it’s too soon to make that judgment. </p>
<p>Virginia is a great school but hardly the only great school out there. May I ask where else you were admitted? And what fields of study interest you? I don’t envy you a tough decision. But in my own case, FWIW, I completed undergraduate with no debt and still got saddled with a tremendous amount in grad school. Something to consider.</p>