Hey guest,
I feel the same bittersweet way about gradcafe. I was a long time lurker and only recently began posting and this wait period is really something. But as someone who doesn't know anyone else applying to PhD programs at the moment it is really great to have others share my anxiety and see people whose thoughts you are now reasonably familiar with start getting into schools.
In terms of your questions:
In terms of location: I'm younger than most people applying to programs and would be relatively speaking ok with doing other things than getting a PhD for a couple of years so I made my list relatively narrow and location definitely factored in. That said, a couple of schools of mine are the best fit for me and aren't in the nicest metropolitan places but seemed worth it for the faculty. I also spoke to a professor of mine and he said that the school in ithaca many of us applied to, from his sources, often has one of the closest cohorts because of its relative remoteness and also that being in a place away from a city can be very good because you will want to get out regularly. This means you will take a break which apparently is very hard to convince yourself to do when in gradschool.
I did an interdisciplinary undergrad degree with a lot of political economy. That said I want my work to draw on a lot of sociology so I'm hoping to go to a place with a strong soc program as well