Cyan, have you visited UT or Chapel Hill? If so, what's your take on either or both programs?
Here's my field report for UT-Austin and Chapel Hill (I'm so torn between both programs. I feel like a guy who's madly but equally in love with two wonderful women):
Chapel Hill:
Pros: Exactly 12 months and geared toward non-accounting majors so everyone will be in the same boat. The program is very clear and laid out, you already know in advance what courses to take. After finishing in May, you can immediately sit for the CPA exam (including the 150 hour states). The program is just the right size at 110 students or so, and the facilities are excellent. The McColl Bldg. looks brand new, students get assigned lockers, and the space is just aesthetically pleasing. Chapel Hill is also an excellent choice if you're looking at North Carolina or the east coast.
Cons: Chapel Hill is a quaint but sleepy college town, and Kenan-Flagler is slightly isolated from the rest of campus so it makes it hard to interact with students from other schools (I presume?). As mentioned, the program is 12 months, which is great as far as letting you get out soon to start working, but looking at the curriculum, it seems a little too crammed. If your goal is to get a job west of the Mississippi, it will be harder unless you have a connection with the particular city (i.e. significant other, family members, you grew up in said city, etc.).
UT-Austin:
Pros: Considered # 1 by various publications, but as I said in another thread, this is partly due to the ranking surveys being filled out by professors with connections to UT-Austin. UT has a large ph.d accounting program. It would be interesting to survey Big 4 partners instead, but the problem with this approach is that accounting seems to be too geographically-based of a profession. In other words, how's a firm in San Francisco going to know about the quality of programs in the southeast? For all the partners at said firm know, Stanford and Berkeley are it.
The program also offers plenty of flexibility. You have four tracks to choose from and you can combine/customize them to fit your particular goals/needs.
The McCombs School is set right in the heart of campus, and it feels like you'll have more opportunities to have a broad social life outside of the business school peeps.
Austin's also alot more fun than Chapel Hill.
Cons: For all the program's flexibility, it can seem pretty disorganized. For instance, if you want to sit for the 150 hour state CPA exams and you don't have an accounting undergrad. background, you may have to take more courses and thus stay longer (which also means paying more $$$). Also, the internship opportunities are harder to come by for someone without an accounting background in order to graduate on time.
So this is just my two cents. I don't know where I'd want to live yet, definitely a major city with a warmer climate where the cost of living is cheaper (not Houston or Dallas though), the crime rate is low, and there are plenty of young professionals.