Fugitivity

What are your ultimate goals? Tenure track job at R1? Tenure track job at SLAC? Tenure track at Community College? Tenure Track at State College? But I think sometimes people jump ahead of themselves. First see if the Graduate School environment at the school you want is one where you feel like you can complete it and that is has the educational as well as social qualities you want. What we haven't talked about here much is attrition, and why it happens. I have heard that a significant amount of graduate students for English never finish. The statistics are difficult to find but I've heard numbers ranging from 35-50%. So it's all fine and dandy to get into your dream school, but if you don't finish it your chances of getting a tenure track job are around 0%. To answer your question: Does the "low ranked" school have all the qualities you want? Are there professors and students there working on stuff that interests you? Do you like the environment? If so, I'd say attend unless you have other serious career options.