Relocate or Stay Local?

[bragierrnot]

I'm REALLY struggling in deciding where to go for my MSW. What it comes down to is either staying in DC where I live extremely cheap and have a support network or uprooting and going to WashU (rated second in the country and offering me 30K) or Portland State. Honestly, I'm insecure about my ability to be independent and move to a city where I will live alone, no nobody and have a much higher cost of living. Still, I'm also worried that I wouldn't be doing the right thing by staying in my comfort zone and only going somewhere decent.

[Modulus]

If you have stable and affordable housing in D.C.. I think staying local sounds like a really good option. I'm not sure what your ultimate goal is, but especially if it is to be a practicing clinician, the ranking of the school is probably not that important as long as it is generally in the range of strong, highly-rated programs.

DC is an area a lot of people want to go but find to be financially infeasible and I believe Howard in particular would open up a lot of doors network-wise as one of the nation's premier HBCUs. 

In short, I wouldn't discount the local opportunities just because you feel like you need to push yourself out of a comfort zone and/or you feel you need to go to the #2 school in the nation?