San Francisco
Eh. They can keep it.• Average engineering salary in sf: 116K / year [1]• Average rent for a one bedroom: $2,700 / month [2]After taxes you're coming in around 72k / year - 32k / year for rentYou'll have roughly 40k to play with. That may sound like a lot but factor in food, health care, travel, energy, internet, phone, and numerous miscellaneous expenses and you'll be hard pressed to save anything over 10k a year. For me it would never work having 2k per month in student loans.Also compare that to a place like D.C.• Average engineering salary in D.C. : 105k / year [3]• Average rent for a one bedroom: $1,392 / month [4]After taxes you'll have around 68k / year - 17k / year for rentThat's 51,000 per year. About 11k more per year and a place that is significantly less expensive to live in. That can really make a difference and you may miss out on being in sf but you're in a large city with a healthy tech environment none the less.1.) http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Software-Engineer-l-San-Franc...2.)http://sfist.com/2013/03/07/map_average_rent_for_1br_in_san_...3.) http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=Software+Engineer&l1=Washing...4.) http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate?a=MSAAvgRentalPrice&msa...