Depends on if you attend a "McDojo" or not. For example, the fees for attending my dojo don't go to the sensei, they goes toward using the dojo room at the rec

Depends on if you attend a "McDojo" or not. For example, the fees for attending my dojo don't go to the sensei, they goes toward using the dojo room at the rec center. The classes are small and personal, and we study a technique until our sensei is satisfied for the day. We do drills and practice, as per normal, then we work on applications. As my sensei says, the difference between practice and application is angle. That is to say, you move a lot more in a fight than you do when you study and practice in a dojo. Contrast that to my unrelated studies of karate as a child where we were the class size was huge (30+) and we were pushed toward buying training gear from the sensei. In that instance, you become less like a student and more like a customer.