In terms of locations: I lived in Boston for quite awhile and experienced a bit of the startup scene there. Bay Area beats it hands down. Boston/Cambridge isn'

In terms of locations: I lived in Boston for quite awhile and experienced a bit of the startup scene there. Bay Area beats it hands down. Boston/Cambridge isn't a bad place to be, but my experience has been that the diversity doesn't give you any benefit. Most of the time I was there and doing startups, I felt removed from where the action was really taking place. There's not a lot of momentum there. I'm a strong believer that the people you surround yourself with and who you let influence you have a big impact on your mentality/success. The price difference in terms of rent/everything else is negligible if you want it to be. As long as you don't need to be in a certain location to make you happy, you can live quite cheaply. In terms of your job offers: You need to consider what you actually want out of the job. Most likely the real difference is not so great, so the actual consequences of your decision don't really matter. If you are just out of school, you should be focused on opening doors and making connections. But don't put so much emphasis on this one decision -- it's not like you are going to be there 20 years. For all you know, you could be there 6 months and realize that you want to do something else or move.