Cherith and I are staying in the US next year.  While I was very, very, very excited to be accepting into Durham's post-grad studies program for Religion/Theology, I have also come to realize the brutal hinge-pin concerning UK PhDs...money.  In the UK, thanks to new immigration laws, the people who generally proceed from the US are those who are 1) offered fantastic scholarships or 2) can afford to drop a huge sum initially with the hopes that more scholarships can be sought and more money can be earned once there.  As you might have guessed, I fall into neither of those categories.  I was not offered either of the scholarships I applied for, so what remains are scholarships I'm eligible for once there.  On the other hand, Cherith and I are poor :-).  Relatively speaking, of course.  Coming out of this degree is not going to be easy on our bank account (though it could have been, which is something I will not soon forget - ask me to tell you the story one day [not over FaceBook or Blogger]), and I foresaw such a circumstance long ago when I deliberated concerning applying to other programs.  That being said, I also came to this conclusion knowing that I can defer my enrollment to Durham for a year.  So in the off chance that my name comes up for consideration again for scholarships, and/or we can save a ton of money, that door is still open to me.