IS team placement upon starting

Hi all, I am starting as an IS this summer! I looked through the reddit and could not find any info on this so wanted to ask here. I did an informational interview with an alumni from my school who worked at Epic for ~2 years and they mentioned that prior to starting, they requested to be placed within a specific city for their first project and they put them on a team that was working in that city. I was wondering if this is normal or worth it and who would I reach out to for this? I am thinking that maybe being on a team close to home for my first project could be good to potentially see family on trips, but was also curious if there is even any downtime in the evenings where I would be able to do this/is it worth it to request a specific location?

Thank you for any info in advance! Much appreciated and excited to move out soon!