Lately I find myself explaining the following point quite often to people who clearly haven’t thought about it much….
Where you go for doctoral studies depends on a number of factors, obviously, and one of them is “fit”. Are you really interested in the specific current research interests of one or more faculty at the place(s) you are going to apply to? And is there evidence of that in your application? For that matter, have you been in touch with these professors? For you, and for them, it’s probably better that you go somewhere where there’s a researcher whose work you are really interested in, than go somewhere because it’s cheaper, you have family there, or the weather is nice. So not only check out those faculty webpages, but read, correspond, and try out some of the ideas you have in common with a professor, even before you apply…