Southern School Rank/ Tiers?

[cellec]

Since I like to post questions a little late in the game I thought I'd ask:

How do you rank/ tier the programs in the South? Do you go exclusively of USNWR or what you've heard from professors? 

 

Note: programs in the south refer to programs south of D.C. and east of New Mexico

[dagnabbit]

You would have to be a bit more specific about what you're interested in studying. That being said, I would say that UNC, Duke, Texas-Austin, Emory, TAMU, and maybe UVA are the best programs in that region. I don't know your situation, obviously, but the advice that I have received from faculty advisors/grad students is that geographic constraints aren't really compatible with academic careers. Typically one tries to go to the best program they can get into, no matter where it is.