[hocuspocus]

I live in Switzerland where privately funded PhDs are possible (though also rare) and things work a bit differently since tuition is about $500 a semester. Yet, it's typically not a good deal (for you, that is, for the school it's an incredible deal). You're typically hired at a 50-60% rate by your employer, and while that's comparable to a university salary, overall it's a lot more work, you have to deal with your boss plus your supervisor, the school and the company fight over ownership of your work, and you still have some obligations as a student in terms of credit and TA hours. The worst of both worlds :)