Dayton, OH: small company, small city, cheap housing, 60,000, mediocre benefits, analytics, reporting, some modeling
Pittsburgh, PA: medium sized company, bigger city, cheap housing, 63,000, educated population, good benefits, modeling, visualization, and client interaction, good chemistry with hiring manager
OTOH, in NYC and DC, there are more women with college degrees than men; this equates to an easier time for that same guy.
Same thing applies if your a woman, gay, etc. - find whichever area favors your target market. You can have a good guess of your boss, work environment, etc. based on the interviews, but until you've worked there, a lot of it is a gamble. OTOH, finding a detailed study of demographics is a Google search away. There is an interesting chart here:
http://labs.time.com/story/see-the-ratio-of-single-men-to-wo...
Why does it matter if they have a college degree?
So the result is that if you are a guy without college, you'd avoid an area with a higher ratio of educated women, whereas you'd have better luck if you did have a degree. Vice versa for women.
Not trying to make a point one way or another on educational attainment, gender, etc., just recommending based on my own experiences.
Have you gone to to each company and city in person?
If so which one really speaks to your heart?
Which company has people that you'd like to meet who you might learn from?
Which city would you want to look for the job after this one if this company falls apart overnight?
Forget logic young Jedi Tomy and use the Force!
By the way it sounds like you're young, so realize that you can do something in life, realize that it's a mistake and then move on. Once you're married with kids and/or have elderly parents your choices become narrowed down a bit...
I help people think through these kinds of situations all the time with my work. If you're interested I'll give you a HN special of a free phone call so we can figure this out together. I'm not going to sell you on anything, so don't worry about that. If you're interested email samuel at thelittleyes.com
You can learn more about what I do here: http://www.thelittleyes.com
Social currency wins. The friends and contacts you make will create higher visibility and more opportunities as your career progresses.
But, it should be noted: If you have two similar offers, you're in a good position to make a counter-offer to either one and get more money out of the deal. If Ohio is willing to raise the salary to dwarf the other offer, maybe it's worth going with them. If you're considering telling them "thanks, but no thanks", then you might as well send a counter-offer instead. You really have nothing to lose.
What's your five year goal? Are you looking to start a family? Looking to get experience? Looking to just have a nice life?