Thank you for your e-mail. Your CV, background and previous work all look very interesting, and the Department would certainly welcome your application. As you can probably well imagine, however, I cannot guarantee your acceptance and funding before we are able to assess your portfolio. Also, I can't guarantee that I personally will be here for the next several years that it might take for you to obtain your PhD degree. If you are still interested in graduate study here, I would encourage you to apply, which would allow the Department to give your application a thorough evaluation on its merits, as well as having other Departmental graduate faculty consider the possibility of your studying for a PhD here.