Seattle

Green, wet and dark for a long stretch of winter, wrapped in mountains and water that make the summers exceptional. It's socially quieter than the East Coast and the reputation for being hard to make friends in is earned. The city is still built for cars despite improving transit, and rents are high without being San Francisco's.

Software salaries are among the highest anywhere and the state takes no income tax, which raises what you keep. But that calculation only begins after a work visa, which is drawn by chance rather than earned in a queue. As a student you are paying American tuition, and the state university's international rate sits far below the private one; that difference is usually the whole decision.Described in shape rather than figures on purpose: rents and salaries move every year and we cannot keep numbers true, but what is expensive and what quietly eats income stays true for far longer.

English, and the load is in explaining your reasoning under pressure in technical interviews rather than in vocabulary. Written communication is weighted unusually heavily inside the big employers here. Decisions are argued in documents, and promotion cases are literally written ones.