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I would strongly recommend not taking out a “lot” of loans for undergrad, especially if grad school is in the cards. So IMO Brandeis should be off the table.</p>
<p>UMass and Clark are wildly different schools… they are opposite on almost everything: large vs. small, rural vs urban, public vs. private, research U vs LAC, even M/F vs 60% F, mostly in-state students vs mostly out-of-state. Surprisingly, UMass seems to be more diverse. </p>
<p>I don’t really know too much about Clark, but at UMass, like every large public U, you will not get your hand held or coddled. Unless you make the effort, the professors will not know who you are. You have to be self-disciplined to a degree.</p>
<p>Most kids do ok, there are some of course who fall victim to the distractions and wind up flunking out/dropping out. Retention rates are similar, so I don’t know if one is better than the other in this regard.</p>
<p>I do like the Amherst area a <em>whole</em> lot better than the area of Worcester where Clark is.</p>
<p>UMass does have a higher-ranked biology program if you like rankings. Biology covers a lot of territory though, they may each have their strengths.</p>