I turned down suffolk primarily because of the funding. I do not want to have to take out enormous loans and cannot see any alternative if I attended a program that only covers half tuition and is in a big city like Boston.
I also turned it down because I didnt love the program. I went to an open house back in November and came away feeling like most of the talk was about them defending themselves for being young and having not had the greatest internship matching stats---that being said, i still applied because I did like the emphasis on diversity and life span development and the being in Boston part and there is even a faculty member who is doing research I am interested in.
I guess it wasnt that it wasnt the right fit, because the program does have a lot of things to offer me, it just didnt feel like the right place...as cheesy as this is sounding, i just got the sense that this was not it.
I actually have not gotten in anywhere else, I am waitlisted at a few places, but felt that I would rather not go to school next year then go to a school that I felt was really not where I wanted to be. I guess its analogous to dating someone you know you really dont like, but you do it because you would rather date them than no one at all...I didnt want to do that here.
And though Suffolk is not the right place for me, every student I met that goes there seemed to really be enjoying themselves and have a lot of positive things to say about the program...so it does seem to be a right place for some people.
hope that helps.
