I have completed my Bachelors and Masters in English Literature in India and have been class topper and university rank holder in my bachelors. I have won proficiency awards and presented several papers and earned the regular credits in my masters. I have a background of 5 years of degree study and nearly 3 years of work experience.

I want to do my doctorate at a good university in the US or the UK in English Literature or related fields of study.
1. How much does it cost to do a doctoral degree in the US or the UK? I heard that some colleges in the US and the UK fund the entire research with stipend and that we may have to take up teaching assistantship. I am not very well off. Will the university fund my research?
2. I have a health condition that requires me to take medicines worth 8000 INR (roughly 95 pounds) per month. Is there some insurance or welfare scheme whereby my medicinal expenses to take care of this?
3. What are the GRE and TOEFL requirements for doing a doctorate program?

Thanks in advance

Mathangi

risenphoenix...what did you actually get in your undergrad degree and masters [classification wise]?

In my Bachelors degree, I got an aggregate of 68.2% and similarly in my masters I have an aggregate of 67.5%

So 2.1 and a credit.

I would imagine [personally] you will likely struggle to get funding based on that. Too much high quality competition re overseas students with 1st's and Masters distinctions. My opinion.

Well... I have 72 credits in my masters.

Hi risenphoenix. Not everything is about the grades. Yes, as golfpro says, there is a high level of competition, however don't let that put you off. If your proposal is unique and you apply to right departments at the right time, there is always a possibility to get funding. Have you been checking the projects on this website and jobs.ac.uk? You can also search for supervisors and approach their departments with your proposal and see if they could offer you a place with the department's bursary. Your health condition can be a discretionary matter. Perhaps it would be a good idea to check the www.dfes.gov.uk to search for links to this specific subject. Good luck.

risenphoenix... 67% [can't say I've ever heard of a University giving out half %'s but anyway] equates to a merit at masters level.

I can only advise you about the TOEFL thing as I am a non-UK student myself. Basically each university has its own policy, but in most cases PhD students are expected to have scored over 580 in the paper-based TOEFL (I dunno the equivalence for the computer-based one but I guess you can find it at toefl.org), and in many cases there are higher requirements for arts students than for science ones. In some universities, they will ask you also for a high TWE mark, usually more than 4.0. And some universities waive the TOEFL requirements if you have completed a degree in English, as in your case. Anyway you will have to ask at the universities/departments you are interested in as there is no national standard.

Thanks all of you. I am getting a lot of new insights in here.

Yes golfpro, 67.5% in the arts stream is quite difficult to manage.

Nimrod I am yet to write my TOEFL or GRE. I want to clarify all these doubts before I do so. I generally noticed that universities in the UK require IELTS and TOEFL. I did not see much of insistence on GRE.
I shall remember to look for universities that waive TOEFL.

404, Thanks a lot for the links. I am looking at them right now. Thanks for the encouragement too.

I am ready to pitch myself against any competition as I am quite sure I am good in my own core subjects of study. I have no qualms about that. I think it is to be taken up as a challenge more than anything else. The very idea of studying English in England is to be in the real competitive atmosphere. I think I'll go for it no matter what.

Yes for what I`ve seen it`s not normal for British universities to ask for GRE grades and in any case not for humanities PhD.

IELTS is more an alternative to TOEFL than something that must be done in addition to it, another alternative would be the Advanced or Proficiency Cambridge certificates.

I wasn't suggesting that your qualification was good or bad risenphoenix, just what it equates too. As a marker as regards the competition, on the MSc I attended last year there was a young[ish] lady [who was English] who got a 1st from Manchester University in English Lit - or such like. She couldn't get on a PhD and ended up doing a Computing Masters instead.

Golfpro I just think that girl made a wrong career choice.. a compromise rather.. Research is something I'd do for myself and it may not depend on a college's selection or rejection of me. I think there are a hundred other ways to pursue my passion than to compromise for something lesser.. and for me personally everything other than Literature would be a compromise. I might as well not study anything else.

Money came into it. Self-funding is expensive.

If that be the case I think I shall do my research in my own country where it is not so expensive.