University of Virginia College of Arts and Sciences

The Echols Scholars program was created in 1960 as an answer to the soaring numbers introduced by the GI Bill. The Faculty Senate decided to create a program that would provide "ambitious academic privileges to students".[7] The program was designed to attract applicants deemed by the admissions committee to comprise the very top academic echelon of the prospective incoming class; the significant academic freedoms and other benefits afforded the small selection of applicants honored with the offer of an Echols Scholarship was meant to entice students likely to be accepted into Ivy League and other top schools to choose UVA in their stead. These privileges include living in an exclusive dorm first year, exemption from area requirements, an exclusive counseling program, an interdisciplinary major, and others. Echols Scholars are not selected through a separate admissions application process; rather, all applicants are automatically reviewed for Echols status during the general admissions process. For enrolled students not originally accepted with the Echols distinction, the school offers an additional first-year application program in which students enrolled in challenging classes are invited to apply. If accepted, they are then allowed to join the Echols Scholars Program for the rest of their tenure at the University.[8]

The current Dean of the Echols Scholars Program is Dr. Sarah Cole.

In addition to majors and (typically) minors being available in the above-listed fields of study, the College also administers interdisciplinary degree programs in the following areas:

There is also a 5-year program, by arrangement with the Curry Education School, through which students who graduate the College with a BA degree may pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching degree at Curry with one additional year of graduate study.

Several of the 45+ departments, along with their faculty, have been noted for important contributions to their fields. Numerous members of the Department of English,[9] which includes the top-ranked Program in Creative Writing,[10] have distinguished themselves nationally and internationally, most notably Pulitzer Prize for poetry recipient Rita Dove, on the faculty since 1989, who served as United States Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995 and has garnered numerous honors, among them the 1996 National Humanities Medal, the 2009 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal,[11] 24 honorary doctorates[12] and the 2011 National Medal of Arts.[13] Dr. James Galloway, head of the Environmental Science department, received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement Award on March 27, 2008.[14] The History department's Virginia Center for Digital History was awarded a Digital Humanities start-up grant under the National Endowment for the Humanities' "We the People" program.[15] Also of the History Department is White Burkett Miller Professor of History Philip Zelikow, who is currently serving on President Obama's Intelligence Advisory Board[16] James Landers, a professor in chemistry and microbiology, has been recognized with the 2008 Innovation Award from the Association for Laboratory Automation.[17] Many more recognitions, from sources such as the National Science Foundation, are awarded to individual students for their academic and research achievements in their respective fields.

The English graduate department was recently ranked #4 in the country according to the National Research Council rankings and #12 according to U.S. News and World Reports. Similarly, the physics graduate department and the neuroscience graduate program were both ranked 14th and the history graduate department 19th.[18] The philosophy graduate program is ranked 32nd in the United States.[19] The economics and psychology graduate departments were ranked 27th and 28th, respectively.[20]