The Quest for Graduate School

Hello to one and all! I figure jody does a lot of the blogging in the family so I figured it was time that I start lifting my weight when it comes to that department. So the goal of this post is to let all those that care have an inside look into where, when, and the why of graduate school. It seems crazy but after six years of school and mission I will finally graduate from BYU this December.
Its pretty sad, this past weekend was new Student Orientation and is it me or do incoming freshman seem to get younger every year!?!? It was pretty funny, I was on campus today getting my hair cut and groups of freshman kept coming by the barbershop, just staring at me. It made me nervous because I didn't know if the lady was giving me a bad haircut or something! I started thinking and lets see these kids or 17 or 18 that means that when I was freshman way back in the Summer of 2003, they were 11 or 12 years old, that just was so crazy to me, but I digress from the purpose of this post.
It seems like for the past six months we've been looking at graduate schools, trying to figure out which one is the best for us. The game plan is to go on get the masters, then PHD and hopefully become an American History professor someday. To do that requires years of school, the exact number I really don't want to think about! After months of research and hours of searching on the Internet, I think we have finally narrowed it down to a few schools. At first we didn't really care where, as long it was some place cool and not Indiana ( I think I told Jody too many horror stories from the mission to convince her to move to Indiana!) Schools like George Mason in Virginia and the University of Florida in Gainsville both had the emphasis we needed but they were too expensive. Just to move out there would in the thousands of dollars range but maybe someday we'll have a huge move like that. We narrowed the group of schools to West/ Southwest so here it goes the positives and negatives of each school.
1. Arizona State University-Tempe
Positives: For one Phx is a great city with pretty nice weather if you don't mind the 115 degree days. It's a big school so it has the library size and rep you need to make it in the academic world. Since I went to High School there we would know a lot of people and we also have family there so that makes it nice.
Negative: Its pretty much over a 100 from may until October which can get pretty annoying.
2. Unviersity of Arizona:
Positive:They focus on Social and Cultural history which is what I want to do and its also a PAC 10 school so they would have everything I would need.
Negative: Tuscon is nice but I hear some parts our kind of ghetto and there's not much going on, so I hear. They also do a lot of with Western History and Mexican history which is cool but not really my thing.
3. San Diego State University
Postivie: Its freaking San Diego, what's not to like, we went there on our Honeymoon and we loved it. They also focus on Social and Cultural history which is great.
Negative: Its San Diego which means it would cost an arm and a leg to live there which means we would have to start selling black market kidneys or crack to survive.
4. The University of Utah
Positive: Its close, we wouldn't have to move very far, if we even moved at all, I think I would be tempted just to stay in Provo and take the bus the two times a week I would have class. They also have a professor who does sports history which is what I want to do when school is all said and done. And it would be cheap because we would get instate tutition.
Negative: Its Utah, I've spent my whole life bleeding Blue and it feels like it would be the ultimate betryal if we went to Utah. Also it would be kind of anti climatic to just move to SLC but you can't be choosey when it comes to grad school, if you get in you go!
5. Utah State
Positive: Again, its in Utah so its cheap and we might even just move in to my brothers condo when they move. They have a good history program with some solid professors and it wouldn't feel as bad as going to Utah when it comes to sports and rivalries even though they hate BYU with a passion.
Negative: Its Logan, not a whole lot going on. They also do more west and environmental history, i'm all about going green but it just sounds kind of boring.
6. Texas A&M
Postitive: Its a good school with tons of research materials, and from what I can tell College Station seems like a really nice town. Another positive thing is that the studnet body is a little more on the conservative side which is rare and would make grad school a little easier when it comes to picking topics to research.
Negative: I still don't know a whole lot about it and its pretty far away but Texas is awesome so it wouldn't be too bad.
7. University of Texas
Positive: Its ranked in the top 20 and its UT so it has major academic street cred. And I here Austin is a pretty sweet place to live.
Negative: I really have no chance of getting in, thanks to Stats and Nutrition 100 my GPA took a hit and I'm going to have to retake them this fall.
There are a few other schools were thinking about but they're still in the early stages of figuring out, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions just let us know!