I don’t know who needs to hear this, but an unfunded PhD, or a PhD with miniscule partial funding, is basically electing to pay for vocation as if it’s a luxury hobby. If it was unjustifiable before the pandemic given the job market, it’s lunacy now.
I read a tweet on here a long time ago I can’t find that was basically “Getting into a PhD program with no funding is in fact a rejection” and it is harsh but true! Even with full funding it’s a bad idea & there are no jobs. WHY do this to yourself