What's the Story on North Carolina?

In the comments, my mom (and dad) ask what school is in North Carolina.

Right now, my first choice masters program is:

MA Psychology
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC

Criteria:

1. 3 professors are good matches to my research interests (which I have a lot of, but still, given that my interests tend toward the consumer behavior side and not, for instance, the racial stereotyping or behavior of small groups side of social psychology, this is a somewhat amazing feat).

2. The location is very good for Robert; it's a large population area, in the Research Triangle, the home of SAS (the stat software people), etc. And it's NOT in NYC, which makes me happy.

3. Quality: the acceptance rate last year was just over 12% and the average GRE score was 1250; these are excellent for masters programs (are higher than many PhD programs). I have also seen it mentioned on many grad school forums as a school with a good reputation for sending students on to good PhD programs and they prominently feature a link to the list of PhD programs their graduates have attended on the web site.

4. The curriculum/coursework looks good.

5. It's a thesis-based, two year program. (Some other programs are non-thesis, which is less useful to me, or are crazy one year thesis-based programs that appear to exist as a "bridge" for people who were rejected from all the PhD programs they applied to and need something to do for the year before they apply again.)

I also like that the MA is the highest degree offered in the psych department, which means the masters students are the top of the food chain. (I mean, to the degree that such a concept makes sense. Obviously all grad students are lowly apprentices in this situation.) This helps with getting funding, attention from professors, etc., compared to say the infamously huge (233 people enrolled last year) and cut-throat environment of the NYU masters program, which gives no aid, makes you compete for the opportunity to do a thesis, and is clearly a cash cow for the university.

According to the APA guide, last year 100% of masters students received a research assistant or teaching assistant position, averaging 12 hours per week and $8,500 per year, that came with a full tuition remission (i.e. they charged no tuition). (Yes, if you think of this as a job, you could weep, but it pretty much rocks that you can get a masters degree for somewhat better than free. The trick is not to think of the opportunity costs.)

I am also biased because it seems like a "real" university to me, as opposed to the usual Directional State University type of school that tops out with a masters in psychology. Perhaps this is pathetic, but I would have trouble feeling good about being a grad student at Northeastern West Virginia State University at Podunksville. Brand matters to me here in a way it doesn't matter elsewhere. It's too central to my self-concept.

Robert also pointed out that Wake Forest has a similar 'feel' to Rice in some respects - it's a small school, for example. I'm sure this is part of the attraction.

However, I am trying not to become too attached to this one program. There are other good ones on my list (and not all of them are even in psychology).

(Perhaps I need to use this coy, hint-dropping strategy purposely in the future to generate comments on my posts...heh.)