TL;DR Accepted the offer from UT Dallas for the Arts, Technology and Emerging Communications PhD program.
Hello everyone,
I also wanted to post an update since I took help from many others here. I had applied to the GA Tech Digital Media PhD program, and after being waitlisted for PhD I received my admission letter into the "Master's" program, which didn't feel desirable. I talked to the Admissions Coordinator and she didn't seem encouraging regarding securing funding for MS, which I know is harder to get than PhD. I naturally declined the offer.
I got admitted to the Media Arts and Sciences program at Arizona State, which was my top choice, however, I found out from Admissions that although they never admit students without funding, this year is an exception and they couldn't fund any students. I talked to the professors of my research interest, and one of them spoke very encouraging and said he would definitely try to figure out something, but it didn't pan out.
Lastly, I got rejections from MIT's Media Lab and UCSB's Media Arts Technology program.
Good luck everyone and let me know if I can help with anything