Thank you! And I really appreciate you commenting and giving me ideas on which to reflect!
To give you a better sense on the areas you inquired about:
1) Pitt's program does offer a number of qualitative courses which I plan to take in order to acquire the Policy Research and Analysis minor, but my concern is the quality of the courses compared to those at UMN. The quality of those courses seem to be what gives UMN a bit of an edge over mid-tier programs. However, this may not be that big of an issue, but I honestly have no idea.
2) I completely agree with you that if I simply wanted the Russian Language skill that I could get that just about anywhere, but IMO Pitt offers just a bit more than that. For example, UMN does offer Russian Language courses, but only up to "Advanced" (which is only one level higher than my current proficiency). Pitt on the other hand, offers "Advanced I," Advanced II," "Fourth-Year I and II," and "Developing Russian Proficiency." I am not really sure what that last one is, but I plan on asking when I visit this weekend. In addition to the language courses, Pitt also offers at least 7 Russian History courses, 3 Russian Culture courses, 2 specific Russian Political Science courses (more if you count their sphere of influence), and even a Russian Law course. In comparison, UMN does not offer any such specific courses outside of language (at least what I have found so far).
3) As for the benefits of going to UMN, although the program is better suited for local and state gov't, the skills that I would acquire (especially from the qualitative courses) would also translate into the international realm. And perhaps I misstated when I said it was better suited for the field that I am already employed. I am a low level state employee and have very little room for advancement (colleague of mine has had the same job for close to a decade). I am currently in constituent services and not in the policy field, so I am in the state government sector (which I do not want to be a part of) and not the policy field (which I do want to be a part of). Hopefully that makes some sense...
Again, I completely agree with you that the primary decision maker should be which program will best get me to my long term goals. I have no doubt that I will be able to achieve my long term goals with either program, but deciding which one is "best" is throwing me through a loop. Perhaps I am thinking way too much about this, but I would rather think too much than too little.