There have been multiple posts regarding program rankings. Sometimes people on here avoid giving such rankings, because it's subjective and/or arbitrary somewhat and they would rather focus on the bigger picture when selecting a program. Most people on here fall into two camps:
1. Go wherever makes you happy, because you don't want to be miserable for 4 years
2. Go to the best name possible because name recognition matters for fellowships and job prospects.
(If you can get both 1 & 2 at the same program, then it makes the best of both worlds).
There's more to it than that, but it's a broad way of splitting things. Would you really be happier in a smaller city even if it means fewer career opportunities down the road? It's hard to measure this, because there's no way of telling what could have been if you went to program X instead of Y. Your choice doesn't have to be linear either with one metric i.e. size of the city. You can and should add other metrics, program reputation, quality of teaching, # of fellowships at the program, etc.
I recommend choosing where you would get the best training to be as competent and independent a pathologist as possible when you graduate above all else. Usually, this correlates with the program that have greater name recognition. For me personally, geography is less important.
If I had to lump your rank list, I would go with Northwestern, Indiana, and Iowa at the top in no particular order. They aren't top tier, but the closest to upper middle tier compared to the rest...
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