Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience as an Americans student doing their entire PhD in the UK? As a 30-year-old starting in January, there doesn't seem to be much funding available outside of US Federal Loans, but I don't want to take anymore of those on, since I already have a lot from my undergrad and grad schools.

Does anyone have tips about where to look for external funding (excluding Fulbright and Marshall Scholarships)?

Thanks in advance!

The UK Research Councils are the main funding for PhDs here, but as you're probably already aware those are only open to citizens of EU countries. Have you tried looking at the websites of specific universities advertising PhDs and getting in touch with them directly to see if their own scholarships are open to US citizens?

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply Tudor_Queen. Yea, I've looked at most of the Research Councils and can't find anything. I've also written to all the universities I've been accepted to and none of them have funding for students starting in January. I might defer to September, when I can apply for the new academic year's scholarships/studentships, but that's not a guarantee.

Apparently Americans usually opt to use Federal Loans, and the universities don't seem to have much for US students. In fact, one university seemed kind of surprised that I was trying to avoid taking out more loans...

Hi there,
To be honest I had a similar issues when I was looking at funding for postdoc research in the US. The only option basically was a 1 year Fulbright scheme. It seems our countries' close partnership doesn't really extend to education and sharing funding opportunities. That said, having lived in the US for a while and experienced things there, it seems like you WAY more funding opportunities for research than we do here in the UK. So I guess, in a way, our more limited pot of money here does need to be ring-fenced! Good luck though - I hope deferring till Sept. works.