thanks for your input.
i'll clarify: i'm not asking about the academic side of this question. i already have that figured-out. i can read through faculty profiles all day long and i've spent enough time on the phone with the program directors (and email with some of the professors) to get a good idea on that front.
and you're right. i shouldn't and wouldn't come to letsrun.com for input on which "school" i should go to.
but i am moving very shortly. and grad school is the reason. i'll be taking classes part-time, having this strange intention of actually living coincidentally with school (perhaps ivy league admission is enough to imply that i didn't live during my undergraduate days; i regret that). so if i asked, "where to go to grad school," i ought to have asked, "what do you know about these two towns? i'm thinking of moving to one of them."
are the people generally friendly, creepy, or rude? do runners get shot at or waved at? etc. i like dark nights, wilderness, and people with spark in their eyes. it seems that both hanover and flagstaff have something to offer there. / but i apologized in advance to all the folks who read this and didn't have a reason to. i'm posing my question to those of you who actually know the place, the people, the general feel of the town and region.
and in general response to the posted questions: i'll be working on a masters in "liberal studies." it's an interdisciplinary topic-based degree. esentially, i write a thesis on whatever i want to write a thesis on ("home" ... cognitive constructions of reality, the geography of the intelligible, the range of moral consideration, evolutionary epistemology, and the psychological and societal response to a plurality of meaning systems). thus far nau comes out on the top end academically (a much more balanced humanities and social sciences program, a larger selection of faculty, a higher percentage of 'interested' or partial faculty, etc.). / if i were primarily concerned with marketability and a high paying job, then liberal studies & nau would be a particuarly bad combo. dartmouth would be something of a saving grace to counteract an essentially 'zero' graduate degree. but i obviously don't come from that side of the tracks. i've worked at just about every job site from merrill lynch to an organic family farm. guess which one i leave off the resume when i'm cutting it down to a page?
i came here because our-city's-just-the-best.com doesn't really tell me what i'd like to know about a place. people do. and the people i know, about flagstaff and hanover, don't know. so that's that.
-hrm