busterjangle

To keep this OT, I got an acceptance to the UPenn PhD program last Wednesday. I also got a rejection from Princeton on Friday. I still have to hear back from UC Berkeley, UCSD, UChicago, Cornell, and Harvard.

I mean, you'd have to travel/sublet, it's not like the NRV is a hotbed of innovation. I'm decently sure there's some tech industry around Utah, definitely more than in Blacksburg. You'd definitely need a car, there's a bus system, but it would be very difficult to do things like go grocery shopping or get anywhere on a schedule using it. I don't know about salary/cost of living stuff so much, however in general Blacksburg is very affordable.

I don't really know too much about the systems side of things. What do you mean by "depend on the location"? Do you mean location as in research group, location as in university, location as in campus? (VT has a campus in Blacksburg, and there's an extension in NoVa, close to DC). So far as I know, there aren't any external internships specific to VT, if that's what you're asking.

I know a bit about the VT program. I'd say that it really depends on what you want to do, and what groups you're interested in. VT at least, is a pretty big program, so there are a lot of people to work with, the downside is that it's a pretty big program, and funding pressure can be uneven across the department. As for more prosaic pros and cons, Blacksburg's actually not that great, if you're not into college football or drinking, there's not a whole lot around, and it's a long way to anything (including the airport).