This is sort of what I was anticipating hearing, and that's a really good point, pinkrobot. Luckily, I'm not heavily bound to NYC at all, really -- I'm actually very interested in several west coast programs that fit my area of interest (early 20th century American, with focus on gender and religion) better than NYU. Thanks for the advice, everyone! And if you all have any school suggestions for my area of interest, that would be awesome-- my list is sort of ill-formed right now.