Virginia Tech's Corps of Cadets, which became a symbol of Tech during national media coverage of the April 16 shootings, welcomes a new crop of cadets, many of whom are on military scholarships, to campus each year. After four years, its members can be commissioned as military officers or blend into regular civilian life, like other college graduates.

But first they must spend the week before school starts immersed in a military boot camp of sorts: learning rifle drill, corps history, obstacle negotiation and, ultimately, personal perseverance.

The usual final week of sleeping in for rising college students comes instead with stern lectures, 5:20 a.m. wake-up calls, specific eating guidelines, physical challenges and a new group of friends, called ''buds.''

Related: See photos and hear audio from cadet week | Hear a cadet's letter home