NOTE: I'm not attacking you, although I will use strong language in my answer. I understand the question and the reason for asking it, but I'm answering honest

NOTE: I'm not attacking you, although I will use strong language in my answer. I understand the question and the reason for asking it, but I'm answering honestly, with the emotion that this question evokes. Most of us hear the term "tuition credit" and roll our eyes, because it is as empty as a politician's promise. The tuition "value" is an old salesman technique. "This car is worth this much, but for you we're going to cut that price in half... isn't that a great value?" It's like saying, "You should thank me because I haven't punched you lately." I think it's laughable. The way the funding works is this: My advisor writes a grant proposal to some agency. If it is approved, the university gets a 1/3 of the money off the top. The rest goes towards paying for the expenses (servers, software, tools, and my stipend). The school makes money because I'm here, and then they have the gall to say that I receive a tuition "credit" when I'm not taking classes in the first place. Rather, the school reaps the benefits of my labor in terms of immediate financial reward as well as claims of intellectual property over my developments and my publications. So the university makes money (that they would not get if I were not there doing research). Then they tell me that they would have charged me $X to attend, but out of the goodness of their heart they are going to waive this tuition, and I should consider it as part of my compensation so that I feel better about being paid less than market value. You tell me: should I feel warm and fuzzy about this? "Tuition credit" is an empty number that they make up. Implying that it is a benefit to me is, frankly, insulting to my intelligence. The only reason that I am working towards a PhD is because I love teaching, and you have to have a doctorate before you can teach at the university level (although there are exceptions, they are growing exceedingly rare).