I'm deciding between similar fellowship funding packages at USC and Illinois Urbana-Champaign (well, the USC one is a better package but obviously LA is more expensive). Both schools have strong queer theory and critical race theory faculty members, but I'm having a hard time deciding between them. Location aside (I think there are good and bad things about both LA and a small town like U-C for grad student life), do people have opinions about the reputations of these schools? I'd specifically like to hear from folks who do queer/gender/race stuff, if possible, but would gladly read input from anyone in English depts. Are there faculty members at your institutions who've done graduate degrees at either school?
Of course I've been in contact with students and faculty at both places, but the decision is getting really rough for me so I figured I'd put it out here and see if anyone had opinions on respectability of these programs, etc.