I am also in this boat! I will say that I recently reached out to a lot of grad students at one of the programs (which is higher ranked, but I know I'm not supposed to read into that too much) and one student offered a SCATHING condemnation of the literature department... I wanted to take it with a grain of salt because it's a really cool opportunity with some very interesting scholars, but the fact that I couldn't seem to get a response from any other students made me a bit nervous. The other program, however, made it incredibly easy to reach out to professors and students for guidance and everyone seems relatively happy with their choice of program. Tell me if this is an unwise approach, but I feel like it's important to listen to current students when making the decision. The next 5-6 years of my life are going to be intense and I want to feel supported by my peers and the department.
So I think I'm going to go with the other program, but making a solid decision at this point is making me feel very uneasy. Have I done enough to ensure that one program is better for me than the other? Am I setting myself up for an uncertain future with a lower-ranked school?