Home university with full research funding or prestigious university with teaching / research assistantship? I have been accepted to a PhD at a top 10 university. I have also been offered a position at my home university, which is ranked about 50th-60th for the subject. At the top university, I currently do not have a scholarship, though I would be able to fund myself through research and teaching assistantships. At my home university, I would get a scholarship for the first year of classes and then a good salary for four years of pure research. At the top university, my supervisor is one of the top researchers in his field, but I would not be part of a research group. At my home university, the research group I would be in is dynamic and large, and has some very good professors. At the top university, I would be working in the field I have been focusing on so far. At my home university, it would be in a related but different field. Which seems like the best bet? There are aspects of both options I like, but I feel too inexperienced to make the right choice. Thanks for your advice.
In general, to be perceived as a hanger-on, a marginal person, at a high-status place is definitely limiting... while being a star and highly appreciated at a lower-status place (while admittedly not as good as being "star at high-status place") is generally perceived as a good thing, with upper bounds as yet unclear. (Here I speak from a U.S. perspective, where things are not as centrally organized/controlled as, e.g., in France or China...)

That is, in the U.S., it is generally understood that, though of course a trajectory that leads directly to high-status situations is the simplest, there are many "second chances". Perhaps this is less so in more overtly and officially hierarchical settings. And, indeed, as things get more crowded in academe, the second chances in the U.S. are fewer and fewer, but they do still exist.

... not to mention the psychological impact of being told daily that you're marginal. Oof. Not helpful. Better to be told daily that you're doing great. Or is that a matter of taste? :)