To answer your question on funding, I was talking to a professor who said that TAs are extremely rare for your first year. It happens every once in a while but its not common at all. He did say that its certainly possible to get RAs your first year. Normally you have to work for a professor for free for a quarter or so, and then if they like your work they'll offer you an RA. He said that its sometimes possible to find funding for the 2nd quarter and definitely by the 3rd. If you can't find funding by the time you start your 2nd year you're in pretty bad shape to continue onto a PHD.
He also said that, when you take out all of the students who simply want a terminal masters, about half the students that want to continue for their PHD at Stanford are able to do so (this is compared to the <2% acceptance rate for outside students who have already gotten their masters applying to Stanford's PHD program)
