<p>How much of a factor will location of the school play when you make your final decision?</p>
<p>For me, there are only two categories of location: here and everywhere else. If I receive funding here, I will definitely accept, because it’s most convenient due to a number of factors. If I don’t, location won’t matter too much when I’m considering other schools. I mean, any college town will provide the basic necessities; it’s not like I’ll need a plethora of entertainment options every night and I didn’t apply anywhere with extreme temperatures or dangerous neighborhoods. Nor will I have much time to travel, and when I do it will be for a momentous enough occasion that it won’t matter whether I’m a couple of states away or across the border. Of course, I haven’t done anything wild like apply to schools in Europe–if I did then I’d have to think about it a lot more.</p>
<p>BUMP</p>
<p>Thoughts, anyone else?</p>
<p>For me, taking the available resources into consideration was crucial. I’m in art history, so I didn’t want to be stuck going to school somewhere 100s of miles from any museums. I also knew that I would not be happy living in the middle of nowhere, no matter how great the school was.</p>
<p>Can I assume that you’re contemplating between 2 schools: one school with superior research/matching interest/ranking vs. another school w/ preferred location? </p>
<p>Personally, I think location is very important in a way that if you’re not happy with your surrounding, then it’d be hard to work at your maximum potential. I’d like to associate location with the diversity, how liberal the community is, cost of living, grad life outside research - pretty much everything else beside the curriculum and your PIs of interest. Whether the campus is next to the beach, hiking sites, middle of the city, or in a college town, it’d be pointless if it is not filled with “your type” of friends, without appropriate financial support, and in some case, far from family. </p>
<p>To answer your question: My criteria is 50% research and 50% other factors. So between a school w/ superior research + funding vs. a school w/ better location, I would probably go for the first option. </p>
<p>Hope this helps! GL!</p>
<p>I think prospective grad students tend to underrate location. Your environment, your community, can make a big difference in how happy and healthy you are.</p>
<p>In addition, if you have a partner/spouse/family, you have to take their needs into account as well. If your spouse’s job only exists in certain parts of the country, you either have to go with one of those locales or have a LDR for a few years. If you’re taking care of your elderly parents, and their health is too bad to deal with a move, you’re going to have to stay local. And so on.</p>
<p>Right now I’m applying to part-time MS programs while planning to stay at my job, and so everything is local anyway. This question will be more relevant for me in a few more years, once I’m looking at PhD programs.</p>