Why dont you just save yourself 50K and 2/3 years of your life and do a PhD in the UK? The first year or two of an American PhD are taken up with classes etc - do you really wanna be doing that? I would seriously think about it. Also, it costs about £100 to do the GRE exam, and on average about £50 per university application. Even if that doesnt bother you, a UK PhD is more highly regarded generally than a US PhD (although im sure some on here will disagree).