<p>Here’s my take on your dilemma.</p>
<p>Emory/McGill are what one might consider to be top tier elite schools on the undergraduate level. UMass Amherst is not an elite school (undergrad) but it is certainly not a pushover school. Anyone who claims otherwise never went there and if they did, they certainly never bothered to challenge themselves.</p>
<p>Depending on the type of personality that you possess, you can fail or succeed in any of these schools. Emory and McGill will definitely have a larger concentration of like minded and very gifted students. There is no doubt about that. However, UMass will have it’s fair share of gifted students. You’ll probably have to assert yourself and take tougher courses in specific subjects to find these students in bulk. If your intended major/path is Engineering or Computer Science for example, you won’t have a hard time finding very smart kids to hang out or study with.</p>
<p>The bottom line is, none of these schools are so poor that you can’t find dozens or hundreds of valedictorians and 2300+ kids around campus. College is what you make of it and this is a good thing! Since you are the essential part of the equation here, only you will know whether you might succeed in a large university environment vs. a medium sized one.</p>
<p>There are also multiple other factors to weigh. Your regard for the university itself(prestige plays a role in everything, even how people pick their cars so let’s not pretend it doesn’t exist), location, tuition, facilities, travel costs, availability of extra-curricular activities, school spirit/sports, food, teachers and so on.</p>
<p>Having other people from top schools tell you how great their school is can be productive. You might learn a thing or two about their school. But don’t kid yourself into thinking that you’re making the right decision because of it. Unless you are completely dishonest with yourself, there really is no wrong decision.</p>