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It's not really like the apartment example. When I was in grad school the tuition number was kind of an imaginary number. It was 60k or something like that, no

It's not really like the apartment example. When I was in grad school the tuition number was kind of an imaginary number. It was 60k or something like that, no idea. I never signed anything with that, was never billed for that, nothing. The only way I could know what that number was somewhere on my online account, where I saw: >> Charge: +$60,000 from Graduate School Division >> Payment: -$60,000 from Graduate Department of XYZ And that was not the value of the education either. Even in quarters where you are not physically in the school, with no classes, library access, etc. you would still be "charged" that magic number. It's just a way to allocate expenses between each department and the graduate school. In most cases they will just change the accounting to something even weirder, and the government will get nothing. Some schools, with arcane rules from donors (such as that their money can only be used for education and not infrastructure) will have problems. But for the most part it's just a stupid thing to do from the govt side, that will just complicate things even more.

gravypod 9y ago
> And that was not the value of the education either Why not? > Even in quarters where you are not physically in the school, with no > classes, library access, etc. you would still be "charged" that magic > number. It's just a way to allocate expenses between each department > and the graduate school. This isn't just for allocating expenses. This is what a grad student is assessed to cost an institution. Did you ever contact the PI of your grant while you were away? Did you attach the universities name to your work? Did you access journals with subscriptions paid for by your institution? Did you use your student email?
- zzleeper 9y ago
  I did a finance PhD. We don't have PIs. Email cost is trivial, etc. Put it another way: I don't care if my employer just spent a bunch of money on a better building or more comfy office chairs. I don't care if the IT department charges my unit $XYZ for expenses (call it "tuition" if you want). That's something that happens on the back end of my employer, and is not an income for me. That's the same thing for grad school. I got paid 20k to work on research, teach, grade, and help in maintaining the school's name so they can get MBA students (who ultimately pay the bills in our case). Why should I care if one unit at my school charged another unit? Heck, I paid taxes and social security on those 20k, got health insurance, had a W2, etc. For all practical purposes, PhD students are employees. Make them pay taxes on their income, and not on the incidental expenses of their employers.

gravypod 9y ago

> And that was not the value of the education either Why not? > Even in quarters where you are not physically in the school, with no > classes, library access, etc. you would still be "charged" that magic > number. It's just a way to allocate expenses between each department > and the graduate school. This isn't just for allocating expenses. This is what a grad student is assessed to cost an institution. Did you ever contact the PI of your grant while you were away? Did you attach the universities name to your work? Did you access journals with subscriptions paid for by your institution? Did you use your student email?

zzleeper 9y ago
I did a finance PhD. We don't have PIs. Email cost is trivial, etc. Put it another way: I don't care if my employer just spent a bunch of money on a better building or more comfy office chairs. I don't care if the IT department charges my unit $XYZ for expenses (call it "tuition" if you want). That's something that happens on the back end of my employer, and is not an income for me. That's the same thing for grad school. I got paid 20k to work on research, teach, grade, and help in maintaining the school's name so they can get MBA students (who ultimately pay the bills in our case). Why should I care if one unit at my school charged another unit? Heck, I paid taxes and social security on those 20k, got health insurance, had a W2, etc. For all practical purposes, PhD students are employees. Make them pay taxes on their income, and not on the incidental expenses of their employers.