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Hi Dismal: I think that your file looks good. I am partial to Maryland for obvious reasons. I have a few thoughts that you might wish to consider, however. First, I think it helps to have a strong economics department alongside the arec department that you choose. Berkeley comes to mind here as the strongest, though Maryland and some others on your list are quite strong too.
Second, you should consider what you want to do after graduating. If you want to stay in academe, then it seems like Berkeley has very good placement, and I think that Maryland does OK in this area too though not as good as Berkeley. Maryland has clear ties in DC if you want to that route.
Third, for econometrics Maryland is quite strong. I like Marc Nerlove (Maryland again!) alot, and Richard Just and Anna Alberini are good too. Of course many of your other schools have wonderful econometricians as well.
Fourth, yet I cannot think of any place in the world stronger than the group at Maryland for Ag (OK, call me a homer). Bruce Gardner, Bob Chambers, Just, Liechtenberg, Lynch, etc., and they added a very good young guy named Barrett Kirwan who is an excellent applied econometrician from MIT.
In any event, you should do your due diligence and decide who you can work with at these places and make sure that they find you of interest as well. The places that you note are excellent too. You should also think about Iowa State (excellent), Madison, Cornell, and Davis.
Best,
JL
PS Last UMD comment--check out their "n reasons to attend Maryland on their website."
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