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@Superres I agree about the not being so quick to dismiss Baltimore. I had an internship at one of the Baltimore branches of the NIH, and I lived on the Hopkins Homewood campus... it wasn't so bad. Not sure if that's where you'd be staying, but the building I stayed in was directly adjacent to a Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, Chipotle etc. Inner harbor is also a really nice place to hang out.

I grew up in Pittsburgh and did my undergrad at CMU (which is right next door to Pitt), so I know the area pretty well. I absolutely love, love, love the city and highly recommend it. If you end up choosing it and need help with any Pittsburgh related stuff, message me.

Nope. Sounds like you're just super cool

In response to above, I got into my top choice program (University of Rochester) and I accepted. One thing though--so, I graduated college in May 2015 and took a year off, but I didn't intend to. I actually applied to grad school during my senior year of undergrad and didn't get in... anywhere. It was extremely confusing, especially since GREs, GPA, recommendations and whatever were all decent. I considered posting my rejections to grad cafe but decided not to because I was too embarrassed. Anyway, I took a year off and did research in cog neuro (which is what I want to pursue), applied again on a complete whim, and I got in. I'm really glad I took the year off to focus on something before applying again. In undergrad, my interests were all over the place. The moral of the story is don't let rejections get you down. I know it's cliche, but hearing someone else say, "The first time I applied to grad school I got rejected from literally everywhere," a year ago would have made me feel a little bit better. So that's what I'm saying to you