Aww, thank you for the congrats! I really am looking forward to visiting UCLA soon ... hopefully that will help in my decision-making process. CUNY is a great program, I agree ... and it may be cliche, but I love NYC! I'm still waiting to hear from Columbia too ... so we'll see. My best advice is to really research each of the schools to which you are applying beforehand. Seek out schools that are a "fit" for your interests, and specify why they are a good match for you - and why you are a good match for them - in your personal statement. Location can be a part of that, but name specific aspects of the department (like a focus on queer theory, for instance) that you think would benefit your studies, and name specific professors whose work could benefit your own. I hope this helps!