<p>I was recently admitted into both Umass amherst and BU, Now I have the daunting decision to make as to which university to attend. Im an international student who is originally from the Boston area, I've loved BU since I was in 7th grade I always dreamed of going there. Unfortunately though the cost of attending BU is extremely high and I would probably end up graduating with some debt. On the other hand I also applied to Umass amherst and got accepted I;ve never been to visit the school or amherst and have no idea how it is like.
The only reason I applied to Umass was because of its low cost which would allow me to graduate with 0 debt<br>
I want to study Biology/ Pre-med and hopefully go onto a good medical school after graduating. Which of the two schools would you recommend in terms of teaching, research opportunities, prestige and chances of going into Med school.</p>
<p>I’m a BU Law grad and my son has been accepted to UMass Amherst (and we have visited a couple of times), so I have some perspective on the two schools. I really can’t comment much on the Bio/Pre-med aspects, although a co-worker’s daughter is a Bio major at UMass and loves it. If you are familiar with BU, you know that it is an urban campus, built along Commonwealth Avenue for a couple of miles from Kenmore Square. It is not a traditional campus in the sense of a central open space surrounded by buildings.</p>
<p>UMass Amherst has more of the traditional campus feel with open space surrounding a pond surrounded by buildings. That said, the buildings are kind of a mixed assortment ranging from traditional red brick and stone, through 1960’s concrete, to more modern buildings constructed in the last decade. The town of Amherst is a nice little college town, and is also the home of Amherst College, a liberal arts college. The city of Northampton is not very far away, and three other colleges are located in the area–Smith, Mt Holyoke, and Hampshire. All the colleges are connected by an extensive bus system. However, UMass is not in any way an urban campus, although there certainly seems to be plenty going on both on campus and in the surrounding area.</p>
<p>You said that you could only go to BU by taking on some debt. If you’ve been reading posts on this site, you have probably seen the recommendation NOT to take on debt for undergrad if you’re planning on going to med school. Med school is very expensive, and so is BU. I am stunned by how much more expensive BU is since I went there in the 1980’s. I would think long and hard about going into significant debt for pre-med. Taking out $22K in Stafford loans for BU is one thing. But if going to BU means $100K to $200K in debt, don’t do it. UMass is a good school and you can get an excellent education there.</p>