Advice or help for making a decision

[MBrun]

I am applying to PhD programs in biomedical sciences.  I received two offers of admission and am really struggling with which school to choose.

#1- a Big 10 university with a lot of cool research going on. The PI I am interested in working under has sufficient funding and has offered me a guaranteed spot in his research group.  Though he is a young professor, he is well known in his field and I would be extremely excited to work with him.  BUT.... I don't like the location of the school.

#2- a smaller university, but it's an ideal location for me personally.  The program is well funded and I would have no trouble finding interesting research here, but there isn't anyone doing research that is as exciting to me as the PI at #1.

Basically, I think I want to go to #2 because of the location, but I am worried that I will regret not working with the PI at school #1.  Anyone else who has gone through a similar situation or has any advice for how to choose a school would be greatly appreciated.  I know I have a couple weeks, but it's stressing me out!!

[sofi]

Personally, I've been going through a similar situation. I'd say it all comes down to what you prioritize in a school. It was primarily the matter of advisors for me. To my luck (or the lack thereof), my communication with my POIs were both really great. Ruling that out, I moved on to other things. Location was initially a concern for me too, but then I meditated on this for a while. Just forgot that I had offers, and started from scratch on a piece of paper. What was I looking for in a program? Opportunities that would come with the school (or the person/people I'd be working with), faculty research activity (as in how active they were in publishing/presenting/doing project work), the flexibility of the curriculum (some schools mandate A LOT of things), classes offered, the duration/amount of funding I'd receive, what the alumni were doing were some of the things i considered. After I made this pros/cons list, it came down to how excited and productive I'd be to pursue a degree in a particular school. My conclusion was that there was no point in going to a school just because of the location if I was going to bum myself out at the end of first semester (I'm going to move to another continent after all!) Also, I've read lots of "prestigious school vs the lower-ranked but great school" dilemmas in this forum  That being said, i don't think many of us are in your exact position, and location might be a really important factor in your decision but still... Here's my two cents.

Hope this helps consider some things!