| Have any of you actually *been* to Urbana-Champaign...? I lived there for two years during my grad work. If you're not into small-town midwest whatnot, you're going to be miserable.
Compare being miserable and 120K in debt with going to a still-top-tier university in a large city in Southern California with significantly less debt.
There's no "must". You don't *have* to go to UIUC, even if you want to do research. You'll get excellent opportunities with either university. If you've visited Urbana-Champaign and love it and are willing to deal with the type of debt that you would incur there (which is LARGE! 120K is BIG DEBT!) then consider it. If you're not interested in living in rural Illinois where the only thing around is the university, then you need to take that into account. You will not be horribly penalized for attending UCSD as others imply... It's a good school, and you would get a good education there. | 
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