iwearflowers

OMG, SAME. I applied to my dream program with no hope of getting in. I just knew I would regret not trying. Now I have an acceptance, and I'm freaking out about the cost of living in that city and feeling guilty about picking it over a more reasonably priced location.

Congratulations!!! It's so nice when you end up being the dream applicant for your dream school.

The hard skills and experiences you come out of your program with are way more important than what your degree says. Look at the methods courses available to you in each department and use that to make the decision. You can always work with faculty or take electives in other departments. My MPH is in behavioral sciences and health education, but I've worked almost exclusively in health policy and health services research because I focused on building a strong toolbox of quantitative and qualitative methods that were valuable across content areas.

I've got two campus visits coming up, and I'm trying to schedule at least one more (still waiting to hear back from one program). I've basically got a data collection protocol drafted with all of the questions I want to ask students and professors, things I want to cost out online, and other factors I want to consider (climate, program fit, etc). Then it's going into an Excel spreadsheet I'm calling my decision matrix. And then I'll probably end up picking based 75% on that and 25% on what my gut says because I'm an INFP. I honestly didn't expect to get into more than one or two programs, so I was not expecting this part of the process to be quite so stressful.

Have you thought about looking for research jobs first and then pursuing a PhD? Spending time as a research associate at a social sciences focused firm has been helpful for me in terms of clarifying my goals and interests. It's also reaffirmed that I really want to work as a researcher and given me some opportunities to publish and present at conferences. Since you already have a master's, I wouldn't look at school as the only path forward. The research team I worked with while I was getting my MPH had some MSWs on it. I think it's just about finding the right fit. I could definitely see your previous work lending itself to research in health delivery systems for those with substance use disorders. Health services research teams are often looking for people with a direct-care background to contribute to their projects, and the fields are closely enough related to make the shift into a sociology program if that's what you decide you want.