Thank you very much for your response but I don't agree that the text you cite demonstrates that all income reported on a 1099-NEC is necessarily self employment income, unless you mean to suggest that the IRS computers will likely expect that income to be reported on a schedule C (which is a slightly different point).
I have spent a fair bit of time trying to research this and I think the majority view, although it is not unanimous, is that student stipends are generally not subject to SE tax where the student is not functioning as a self-employed individual (which seems to be most of the time). I think the situation is similar to honoraria, which I understand are reported as other income not on schedule C (unless of course one's business is giving speeches).
I guess one option would be to just report it on Schedule C on the assumption the computers will like that better, but it does not seem to accurately reflect the situation, so I would be more inclined to report it as other income (and give up my complaints about the standard deduction) but I am curious if others have additional thoughts.
