First of all, I am open for a new title for this question to help me reach more people.
I am an international Masters student at a top 5 electrical engineering program in USA. I applied for a PhD though, but given admit in Masters program. I have spent two semesters already. Currently, I am doing an internship at a reputed company. Five months ago, I started working under a professor, who then just finished his post-doc from one of the best institutions. I still work for him during my spare time, and things look very promising (prospects of a paper). While working on the internship, I realized how much I want to do PhD.
Now, my department allows transition from MS to PhD given adviser's recommendation. However, my adviser tries to avoid the questions about PhD. Possible reasons could be that he is getting smarter students from his post-doc university next semester. Also, he can't afford too many students given he is extremely new.
Now, at this stage I don't think I can get another PhD adviser as I haven't worked for anyone else.
Another catch is that my university's tuition fees is very high, and a PhD would have eliminated the fees for the next year. But, that is not the reason of pursuing a PhD.
So, I am thinking if I could get a grant based on my own research to fund the upcoming year, that would have been great. Remember, I am an international student.