Jiwan Lee

After a few conversations with my mentors and friends who are PhD students, the biggest theme that I heard was "faculty match" as the most important aspect when choosing where to go. This mentoring relationship will last even once you enter the job market and as you are becoming more established in the field and come up for promotions, etc. Also just having to spend so much time working on data collection and analysis, writing papers, attending conferences, etc. that you should be somewhere where the faculty interest closely aligns with yours and there are good vibes. The next biggest thing I heard was funding. Although stipends range from school and region, it is important to make sure that the funding is secured and that you feel you will not have to worry about finances too much. Although I really wanted to apply to UC Berkeley's program, I chose not to because I didn't want to try to live in the Bay Area making $30-something thousand a year (not that it's impossible but it jus wasn't my preference). Also, some schools provide "guaranteed funding" for four years while other schools provide it for five years, so that is also a consideration about whether someone would feel rushed trying to finish everything before funding runs out. Finally, I would consider looking at the program's strength and records. For instance: Where have recent graduates landed positions? Are these similar positions that you're interested in (i.e. mainly post-doc for TT professor or maybe most graduates are staying local to one state but you are trying to move across the country); also what are other supports such as helping to get teaching opportunities, conference workshop support, cohort diversity, etc. I would say really think hard about it as most schools have that April 15 deadline but of course if you are 100% sure you aren't going somewhere, don't forget about the folx on the waitlist who may benefit from haste!
Once I stopped typing I realized how long this response was haha. But I hope that something in here may be helpful. 

Hi all! 
I’ve been lurking for years, and this was the first time I’ve applied to doctoral programs.
I’ve been accepted to the AM/PhD program at UChicago a couple weeks ago and a day after a phone interview with a faculty member on the search committee.
Stats: 
BA in Sociology; law and society with 3.8 GPA and MS in Counseling; option in Marriage and Family Therapy with a 3.8 from State university in Southern California.
Volunteered as a graduate research assistant doing LGBTQ youth research and school-based family counseling.
4 years of practice experience as a MFT, school counselor, and violence prevention educator. 
Taught for two years as an Adjunct in my former grad program.
158 V/ 146 Q/ 4 A (I’m as shocked as you). 
So aside from this one social work program, I applied to the Social Ecology program at UCI, Population Health and Place program at USC, Community and Prevention Research program at U Illinois- Chicago. I was rejected by USC and Illinois, and accepted by UCI, but with significantly less funding. 
Id love to hear what you all know about the SSA program at UChicago. I’ve read a lot about it, both on this site and their site, and it seems like a great fit. However, I’d be leaving my life in Los Angeles, so I want to learn as much as I Can from the visit day and gradcafe.