My advisors, though, to answer the initial question, kept telling me to go for straight Lit Phds since, because I already have an MFA, it, to them at least, looks better on the resume than two CW degrees. Hope my comments are helpful, and congrats--you must produce quality work since getting accepted to, or being waitlisted at, any of those programs is no easy feat.
Just wondering, has any USC Phd applicants out there heard anything? I managed to forget about my application till now since it's the only school I applied to this year and applying to USC feels a lot like buying a hundred dollars worth of power ball tickets, but now that it's March it's getting harder to not check my email and grad cafe every few minutes despite the likelihood of a form rejection.
Thought this was a silly question until I saw you were going into criminal justice. I wouldn't have made it past day one if that was the case during my mfa. (I'm actually only a light smoker, or vaporer, but my natural demeanor is on the stoney side). And I imagine the % across all fields of profs and candidates is going to be higher than your national average. I've also never heard of a candidate or a professor getting a drug test. I guess it could happen if they were trying void your tenure or kick you out of the program, but again never heard of it. My 2 cents: it's likely not going to be a problem unless you plan to work at the federal level, but discretion isn't a bad idea either since there's usually a lot politics and politicking on college campuses and just in academia in general since there's only so much money and positions to go around.