So I'm not sure if I'm getting bogged down in prestige and rankings here, but I had a bit of a rough cycle, with only 1 offer from Cornell University, and an MA offer from Columbia. I know where all my weak areas were in my application - low GREs, my SOP was not focused on research enough, etc., and lack of methodology training mainly. My question is, is it better to take the MA offer from Columbia, improve my applications, and apply to the top schools again next year with the necessary improvements/changes, or is a Cornell PhD fine? My research focuses on China, which I know Cornell is strong in, if that helps.