@Hal_Al
None of these is correct. (By the way, did you involve the finance people from your current university, did they know about the arrangement?)
Most of the time, a PhD candidate is treated as a student. You are a trainee, and you are technically not performing "work" for "compensation", even though you perform duties similar to other people who are employees, and you are exempt from medicare and social security tax. This is an exception to the usual rules. (And there are exceptions to the exceptions. Suppose you are paid $1000 extra to TA a course. If that is required as part of your degree requirement, you are student and exempt from social security and medicare. If you take a TA job for extra income that is not part of your degree requirement, then it is a job and subject to W-2 wage withholding, even though the bulk of your stipend is still exempt.)
You already found the correct answer. Report it in the Education (1098-T) interview.
Instead of entering as income, at the 1099-NEC screen, In TurboTax (TT), enter at:
Federal Taxes Tab (Personal for H&B version)
Deductions & Credits
-Scroll down to:
--Education
--Education Expenses
After entering your 1098-T (if you don't have a 1098-T, answer that you qualify for an exception). That will eventually get you to a screen to enter scholarships not shown on a 1098-T. When asked how much of the scholarship was used for room and board, enter the entire amount of the 1099-Misc. That will make it taxable. It will go on line 1 of form 1040 with the notation SCH.
See also longer discussion here.
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/college-education/discussion/nrsa-t32-fellowship-income-and-fica-e...
