bkb, It's not always good to do phd without funding. I assume you had tried to find good universities for funding. If you try at medium level universities, they can offer assistantship easily as you are already an US graduate. As you know H1 is not as easier as it used to be. If you really want to do phd, dont come without assistantship, however if you are confident in finding job in CPT, tuition fee doesn't matter as you can transfer it to H1 later next year. And dont forget the situation of exploring the job while you were just graduate and forced to leave US. The situation can be worse depending on the CPT rules of university.Good luck to your search.