The tuition is bunk. You take maybe 1 or 2 years of classes in your phd and its not a full courseload at all. At least in stem. The rest of the time you sign up for a fake class that doesn’t meet anywhere so you qualify as a full time student for health insurance. Except the rub is they still charge your pi for that tuition for the class that doesn’t exist.
Tuition is also used to pay the supervisor. Direct one-on-one mentoring by a tenured / tenure-track professor is more expensive than classes, which are often taught by adjuncts.
