I'm from California (San Diego - 7 years, north of SF before that) and currently at UIUC. If you never leave the radius of the towns, you would NEVER know that it is in the middle of nowhere because the grad population is very diverse (undergrads...tend to be from Illinois). The professors are generally excellent and the general academic community is oriented towards collaborative problem-solving rather than lots of island labs. The only thing that sucks for me is the lack of a Trader Joes or even a Whole Foods...wtf.
That said, a major bonus of living in a smaller city is that housing is very cheap. I'm moving to a 2-bedroom place with a 15 min walk to campus with a washer/drier in unit, installed overhead microwave, dishwasher, central AC, underground locked garage (hello winter!), faux granite countertops with real kitchen tiles, etc etc for under $800/month. You could never, ever get that in California...
But critically at TJ's you can buy something for $5 that at Strawberry Fields is $12 (case in point: raw/unsalted crunchy almond butter). Strangely, the Meijer's grocery store in Urbana has a selection of Amy's frozen food products that is far beyond that offered by Strawberry Fields, and the Meijer's in Champaign has a much better/cheaper health-food snack bar (ie Luna) selection than the actual health food stores. I really only like the bulk selection and fresh breads at Strawberry Fields...
As a vegan food snob type, I'm paying probably twice what I was in California for food in general. Grumble grumble. (That's not to say I don't appreciate the fact that common grounds has vegan quiche if I really wanted to try it!)
Meijer is like Walmart for food snobs, seriously. I'm always amazed by what I can find there. (I don't have one where I live, but when I visit the boyfriend I get to go.)
I can't speak to your program of choice, but I lived in Irvine for 2 years while completing my undergrad. It's very suburban, nice. There is stuff to do, and UCI is a great school. I just got accepted into UIUC and I visited there already. Spent a couple of days and have done some research. Yes, it's isolated, but there is actually a good amount of stuff to do in the immediate surrounding areas of the campus. It's a nice area, and Chicago is only a 2 1/2 hour train ride away, which seems do-able for me.
As others have said, eliminate the non-funded programs immediately. This is not a lucrative degree/field and you should not go into even a dollar of debt for it. Plus, the programs at Irvine and UIUC both sound better, more solid than the Columbia TC program.
My top choice academically would be UIUC, but if you truly can't stomach the idea of living there, go to Irvine.
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That said, a major bonus of living in a smaller city is that housing is very cheap. I'm moving to a 2-bedroom place with a 15 min walk to campus with a washer/drier in unit, installed overhead microwave, dishwasher, central AC, underground locked garage (hello winter!), faux granite countertops with real kitchen tiles, etc etc for under $800/month. You could never, ever get that in California...
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As a vegan food snob type, I'm paying probably twice what I was in California for food in general. Grumble grumble. (That's not to say I don't appreciate the fact that common grounds has vegan quiche if I really wanted to try it!)
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My top choice academically would be UIUC, but if you truly can't stomach the idea of living there, go to Irvine.
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