Finally rejected from NYU, so formally accepted a spot at the University of Michigan. Wahoo.
As for the conversation that's been going on, I've been told by numerous mentors who are on admissions in different programs (History and Islamic/Religious Studies, mainly) that even if it shouldn't be the case, the ranking of your school does matter when getting a job. Same for what you write your dissertation on... For example, if I was to do an Islamic studies degree, I'd been told that to be taken seriously when looking for jobs to write about something medieval because committees believe that means you know your shit as opposed to someone who wrote about modern stuff- told this by the now-director of Islamic studies at Duke. Not sure how the dissertation thing would apply to history, though.