I'm basing my order of preference on a mix of "fit" and the school's/program's prestige. From what I've been told, my chances of landing a good job after graduation increase with an Ivy League degree. It's dumb and hierarchical, but apparently it's the way of the world. After learning that Gaddis is no longer accepting graduate students and that I won't have an opportunity to convince him how misguided he and his views are, Yale has probably fallen a spot or two. I might add Harvard and Erez Manela to the list, but my analytical framework isn't entirely novel (though it's a bit more specific than I let on) and it sounds like he's only interested in working with students who bring a pathbreaking new perspective.
I'm wrestling with your question with regard to Cornell. I think Logevall is brilliant, and his interests align very closely to my own (Choosing War and the broad points in America's Cold War). As far as other possible members of a committee, though, it's a mixed bag. Chen Jian for international Cold War and US-China relations, Kohler-Hausmann for political history. There are a few people in the government department whose writings coincide with my interests, but I realize that raises some methodological issues.
Texas is close, so I anticipate visiting before I send an application. Suri's arrival there makes it all the more appealing. Good call on UConn--I hadn't given it as close of a look as I should have.
Proximity to archives presents a bit of a dilemma. The West Coast has the Hoover Institute and Reagan, Bush the first, Nixon, and LBJ Libraries, and those are big draws. On the other hand, the other side of the country has the National Archives, the Carter and Ford Libraries, and a host of smaller archival collections like the Rockefeller Archives in NY. The more prestigious schools also tend to have their own collections of personal papers (Princeton, for instance, has the Dulles brothers, George F Kennan, Bernard Baruch, James Baker III, etc.).
And good guess! Olé, olé, olé, oléee!