I am hoping to start a part-time (4-6 yrs, depending on what schools I get accepted to, if any) Distance research PhD in Education. I will be self (read: US Bank :-/) funded for the duration. I just finished my Masters of Education from a pretty well respected university, with the no. 1 ranked Ed dept in the US, with a high final GPA. I have a good idea of my research question at this point and the universities I'm looking at seem to have professors who share the same interests (I'm still waiting on the few that I've actually contacted as I've held off on it until I had a more thought-out proposal ready to present them with...). I plan to work full time (or close to it) while completing the degree and fully accept that its going to be a rough time...

I'm just wondering if anyone else is doing a similar program or has any experience with one? Is it really difficult to communicate with the university/supervisors in such a distance program? I've had several academic projects in the past with little in person interaction with my supervisors and it has never posed any problems for me or my work.

Will my being self funded increase my chances of acceptance? I assume (hope?), as I'll be nonUK/EU and having to pay the big bucks, they'd be pretty happy to see my money?

I know I'm pretty late in applying for this autumn but all the programs I'm interested in list end August deadlines or rolling admissions and all say they're still accepting applications so I'm hoping that won't kill my chances? I was hit by a car a few months ago and that kind of slowed down the whole process for a while... :$

Sorry for the mass amounts of questions and I appreciate any responses!