re: Did you actually attend an SEC University?

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Keep in mind the reason you are getting Texas and West Coast. Texas = generally more stable economy depending where you move (Dallas is probably most stable) and West Coast = much higher cost of living. That being said if you search hard enough in that industry you can move where you want. Santa Fe and Boulder have a want for your field for example.

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Graduate of the University of Arkansas, though I have fond memories of Southern Illinois University where I majored in drinking and playing cards for a year and a half.

Usually I would say go where you need to go while your degree is hot but the West Coast, and Boulder for that matter, are hideously expensive places to live. Yes, the salaries are bigger but they disappear rapidly.

As an example a friend of mine who was a sheet metal worker (a skilled trade where he was making 100+ grand a year) moved out to California two decades ago with his wife. Despite pulling in 100k they never came close to being able to afford a house.

Now he is retired and on disability because of a back injury that makes it difficult for him to even walk, which precludes a second career as a teacher because sitting in a chair all day long is torture for him.

He rents a lopsided trailer 15 miles outside of town for 1400 a month and its a great deal for the area. Its smaller then the two bedroom place I was renting in Fayetteville (a block from the grocery store and liquor store, on a free bus route, and next to a nature trail) for 600 a month.

Or my other friend whose husband got laid off out there and now she is having to ask friends for "loans" to help pay the utilities and buy clothes for her little girl.

You will make a lot more money out on the coast but it is a lot harder to hold onto to it. 75 grand almost anywhere in the South will go a lot further then 90 grand out in San Jose. If you have to move for the work, move to Texas or Santa Fe and not out West unless they offer you a lot of cash.