the thing is that irvine's approach - the utter flexibility in designing your program, and the emphasis on comparative and interdisciplinary work while maintaining the importance of traditional fields - would suit me far better than any other school i can think of - if i could have irvine’s approach + princeton or virginia’s setting/happy-peppy feel i’d be overjoyed. the obstacle is always the same one: i don’t want don’t want don’t want to go to the west coast. don't ask me why i don't i just don't the idea gives me the chills somehow. that’s rather missing a logical step of course. the first obstacle is getting in, the second is that i don’t want (don’t want don’t want!) to go to the west coast.