Grad School Redux

Wondering where I've been for three months? Researching grad schools, that's where! I've narrowed the list down to six, along with the pros and cons of each.

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - Evanston, Illinois
Good: In Chicago, gives full rides to all students plus $12K stipend, amazing African art library and collection. Small program, so more attention to me.
Bad: Very competitive admission (8% accepted), and nobody who does anything Tibetan or Peruvian (which could hurt my admission chances), big on foreign language prep (me=none.)

YALE UNIVERSITY - New Haven, Connecticut
Good: It's Yale. Colossal resources, full tuition remission and $18K to students, and the name means a great deal in academic circles.
Bad: It's not exactly close to a major city (NYC sorta), and I haven't heard the most wonderful things about New Haven either.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY - Cambridge, Massachusetts
Good: Close to Boston (we like Boston), and all the resources and great name of Yale.
Bad: Incredibly expensive the first two years ($50K per year - NO SCHOLARSHIPS), and also very pretentious. Yale is too though.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - Ann Arbor, Michigan
Good: Vaguely close to home (4 hours to Chicago), excellent resources and funding (full rides and whatnot), and the only school on this list with specialists in my three key areas. Two of them are the leaders of their fields.
Bad: I've grown up hating UM. Evil Michigan. Also, it is near Detroit. Also hate Detroit. Additionally, rumored to be just as pretentious (if not more so) than Harvard and Yale. I've never met a student from there who I've really liked as a person. Scholar yes, but not person.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - New York, New York
Good: Excellent program, rated best in the nation. Crazy resources of its own wealth and the city of New York at its disposal.
Bad: Program is very large and competitive, even cutthroat. The leading scholars there are people I don't really see eye to eye with. Don't like NYC very much, but I could live. Also, they don't give very much money to their students unless they are stupendously awesome (which I am, but I can't rely on the admissions people to figure that out.)

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND - College Park, Maryland
Good: Good program. Advisors in all my areas, and more of them at the close-by DC universities. I have a friend there who says I would totally get in, along with lotso money coming my way. Very laid back and intellectually free. DC has great museum and conferences for me to attend. They always beat Duke in basketball.
Bad: Not a big-name school, which may hurt my chances of getting a job later.

Decisions, decisions.