Finishing a MA online - then going onto PhD

[natebassett]

I'm currently doing my masters at The New School - I commute into the city during the semester on one or two days a week, as needed for classes. I take a mixture of online and physical classes, and I have about 18 credits to go. I also want to do a thesis option, because after I graduate I want to apply to a PhD program with funding, and keep studying/researching/teaching in my field (Media Studies/Digital Humanities)

The thing is, I might be getting a job offer from WashU in a position that's applicable to my field - but that would mean moving to STL, and finishing my MA online.

I'm wondering if that would totally mess up my chances of a strong admission into another grad school, because I wouldn't be around my thesis advisors (they do apparently do that online, but I haven't really settled on anyone quite yet), or would it be no big deal to finish the MA online, work for a year, then apply?

Schools I'm thinking of: Northwestern, MSU, UIC, UIUC, University of Chicago