So a week or so ago my plan was to go buy a GRE study book and start studying, take them once or twice, and be ready to apply for schools in a year for a Fall 2022 start. But then I talked with a friend of mine to get some GRE book recommendations, and he accurately pointed out that a lot of schools have waived the GRE for this year. So I'm still going to study for the GREs and all, but I'm also going to yolo a few applications in without GRE scores for Fall 2021 and see if anything sticks. I'll have less saved up, likely be taking on more debt as a result, have to quit my job mid-pandemic and when leaving grad school be going into a public health workforce oversaturated from a bunch of either (a) unemployed now Masters' educated people who decided to use the pandemic to get a degree, and/or (b) a bunch of unemployed people from all the Covid grants running out (I know mine is two years and ends Nov 2022).

So wise hubski people, give me different and new perspectives on why this is a good/bad idea. Working remote is almost certainly not possible with my current job, and I have no interest in staying around here anyway so grad school is an excuse to move away to somewhere new.