[mayank]

> Is there not something rather bizarre about the government taxing the money it's giving to you to support your studies?

My PhD in the US was funded by NSF dollars, ie public money. I went to a state school. My stipend was taxed like regular income. On top of that, I paid Medicare and Social Security taxes (publicly funded government programs), which as a non-US citizen, I cannot use anyway. When you're making less than $20k a year in downtown Chicago, all this hurts quite a bit.