the PROs and CONs of grad school

dear discounted easter candy,
i love you, even though you are not weight watchers approved.
sincerely,
karen

so schools. still haven't heard from umass Boston, got waitlisted at UT women's studies (thank god its not a no) and i have w&m and purdue. I've gotten many opinions, looked at housing, emailed current grad students at each program, etc. here is the pros and cons list, because it helps me a lot:

PROS

UT: where to begin! best housing, cheap moving costs, cheap living costs, get to live with LIESL YAY, all my friends there, i love the city, i have an austin cell #, internationally known school, i'd get to work with AMS people while in the WS dept., there are a lot of people who would help me do great things, i have a better chance of getting into the AMS program for a PhD. did i mention i love austin the most??

PURDUE: i find out next week if they are offering me a TA position (all tuition paid, i'd start teaching classes by 2nd semester my first year which is GREAT since i want to be a prof.), cheap living, not terribly expensive moving costs, don't have to reapply to get into the Phd, profs are nice, dept. is very accessible and emails me often and with helpful info, they seem like they really want me, grad students very helpful and nice, i have family in indianapolis (>1 hr away), friends in chicago (>2 hrs away, also amazing city)

W&M: really great program, it's the only one thats 1 year so it's less $ than purdue (unless purdue gives me a full ride...), GORGEOUS area, my fav. prof at Skidmore said go there over anywhere if you can, lots of great profs, grad students say it's a great program and the faculty are very accessible and give you their home #s on the syllabi, etc.

CONS:
UT: i want a master's in american studies (but can live with WS), i am really sick of the race/class/gender ws's trifecta, i'm annoyed that UT sucks and are really hard to reach in every dept.

PURDUE: it's indiana, the town is pretty much just the school, not as prestigious as other programs, don't know a soul at the school.

W&M: really expensive apartments, expensive moving costs, the prof i want to work with sort of blew me off, one year intensive program (you finish your thesis during the summer) so i don't know how i'd apply to a PHD program, i'd have to take out 50k in loans.

so basically: i will go to UT if i get in and Purdue doesn't offer me any $, but it's most likely that Purdue will offer me $ so i'm prob. going there. but if Purdue doesn't offer me that much $ and UT lets me in, I'll go to UT. w&m is my last resort at this point.
got it?

IN OTHER NEWS: mikey is moving to brussels for 3 years at the end of may. he and i have a wonderfully insane trip planned (may 7-20th, in nyc, boston, marshfield, cape cod, maine) that involves a lot of fun and possibly a lot of drinking (and lots of amazing friends of course). then i have a family reunion in north carolina for 2 weeks in june, one week in aspen for my cousin's wedding, and then i come home and move to either indiana or austin.