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Educational Discount Qualification

O

owlmanatt

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 8, 2006
2
0
I'm a sixteen year old geek who has more desktop machines than he can count...but I have finally decided that I need a laptop. I mainly run Ubuntu Linux, but after reading about OS X and hearing what a few of my friends have had to say about it, I'm pretty excited about it (and the fact that I won't have to spend hours getting a wireless card to work on it!).

Unfortunately, I am also a highschool student with a low-paying part time job, so paying the premium for OS X and Apple hardware is kind of hard for me. I am wondering if I qualify for their educational discount?

The Apple store makes it look like only university students qualify, but I recall one of my teachers telling us we should get the discount two years ago. So...as a highschool student, do I qualify?

Thanks for your attention.
 
You do not qualify for the educational discount...only university students are eligible. There is a teacher/staff discount at the K-12 level, but not for students.
 
Apple.com:

You must be a qualified Apple Education Individual end-user purchaser. Qualified participants include:

* K12: Any employee of a public or private K-12 institution in the United States. School board members who are currently serving as elected or appointed members. PTA or PTO executives currently serving as elected or appointed officers.
* Higher Education: Faculty and staff of Higher Education institutions; and students attending, or accepted in to a Higher Education institution.

Oops, looks like the question was already answered! Amazon.com usually runs some sort of rebates or discounts, you can buy it from them. Or, you can get a refurbished Mac for less. They're less likely to have problems having been through Apple's quality control twice. (at least, we all hope that's the case)
 
WildCowboy said:
You do not qualify for the educational discount...only university students are eligible. There is a teacher/staff discount at the K-12 level, but not for students.
Click to expand...
Ouch. That really sucks. I obviously have more money than a poor, cash-strapped Yale student. :-(

Oh well. Maybe I'll just get a Dell laptop.
 
You can check around for other deals online...for instance, Amazon usually offers rebates on a lot of the Mac models. They're only for the stock models, but you can save a nice bit of change by going that route.
 
owlmanatt said:
Ouch. That really sucks. I obviously have more money than a poor, cash-strapped Yale student. :-(

Oh well. Maybe I'll just get a Dell laptop.
Click to expand...

I don't think anybody is going to fight you here, if you're going to college you can probably get the discount in just about a year ( I'm guessing you're going to be a junior) and you qualify for the discount as soon as you're accepted for college). But I'm also guessing theres that need it now impulse that will take over the value and quality assessment.

I have no idea how your house is, to be honest but I had more money when I was in high school than when I was in college. there was no money for the bar, dates didn't include a bottle of wine and were cheaper, I didn't have a cell phone bill. Gas was a toss up and I only paid for it occasionally, so I had much more money actually.
 
Also, Apple computers off of Amazon tend to be very comparable price-wise to buying direct from Apple Education. You don't have to pay tax, and you can often get a significant mail in rebate.
 
owlmanatt said:
Ouch. That really sucks. I obviously have more money than a poor, cash-strapped Yale student. :-(
Click to expand...



you probably don't have the huge tuition bill that a "cash-strapped Yale student" has either

if you have more desktops than you can count, then you probably have more than you really need, so sell something....the student discount isn't THAT huge after all. you should be able to easily make up the difference
 
Does your high school run any macs? My old school used to sell their machines to the students when they where upgrading .... I thought that was an excellent idea and the same thing may happen at your school.
 
Is there any type of verification for the educational discount? Last weekend during NC's tax free weekend I ordered a Mac Mini from the Apple website. I ordered it for my son, under his name (but my credit card), and he is a college student who qualifies for the educational discount. I just clicked on the educational box and bought the Mac with the educational discount. While I bought the Mac in my son's name, who qualifies for the educational discount, I found nothing on the Apple site in terms of verification. So to me it looks like anyone can order from them using the educational discount? Did I miss something? Is there any verification that the purchaser in fact qualifies? or is it just a "trust me" situation?

Raleigh1208
 
To sign into the student discount store, you have to enter your student id number along with the school you are attending.
I would suggest buying either refurb. or off ebay, if you can use your parents ccard.
But again, if you have too many desktops, sell some.
what dt are you running?
 
raleigh1208 said:
Is there any type of verification for the educational discount? Last weekend during NC's tax free weekend I ordered a Mac Mini from the Apple website. I ordered it for my son, under his name (but my credit card), and he is a college student who qualifies for the educational discount. I just clicked on the educational box and bought the Mac with the educational discount. While I bought the Mac in my son's name, who qualifies for the educational discount, I found nothing on the Apple site in terms of verification. So to me it looks like anyone can order from them using the educational discount? Did I miss something? Is there any verification that the purchaser in fact qualifies? or is it just a "trust me" situation?

Raleigh1208
Click to expand...

It is a "trust me" situation for the most part. They do, however perform random checks from the online store, so you are taking a risk by lying.
 
raleigh1208 said:
Is there any type of verification for the educational discount? Last weekend during NC's tax free weekend I ordered a Mac Mini from the Apple website. I ordered it for my son, under his name (but my credit card), and he is a college student who qualifies for the educational discount. I just clicked on the educational box and bought the Mac with the educational discount. While I bought the Mac in my son's name, who qualifies for the educational discount, I found nothing on the Apple site in terms of verification. So to me it looks like anyone can order from them using the educational discount? Did I miss something? Is there any verification that the purchaser in fact qualifies? or is it just a "trust me" situation?

Raleigh1208
Click to expand...

apple might occasionally ask you to send some enrollemnt verification sort of thing to them, but mostly no. if you buy in store, they need to see ur student id

why, is ethic and conscience not enough these days?
 
The education discount isn't THAT much really. You could try doing it online maybe they wont check? When I ordered my mini on the phone all they asked was my university and that was it. No checks nothing. (Though I DO go to university so technically it wasn't a lie :p)
 
i think it's pathetic for people who dont quaify for education discount to try to use one just hope Apple won't find out. just personal opinion.
 
As people have been saying here, the refurb store sells macs for the same or less than the edu store.

The MacBook Pro is $1999 w/o discount and $1799 w edu discount BUT if you could stand a slightly slower intel (1.83) the early MBP is $1549 refurb.

Savings on MacBooks are actually a little less. The lowend MB is $1099 w/o discount and $1049 with. I did, however, see a low end MB for $999 refurb. All in all, the edu discount is nice, but not spectacular.

Another thing I might suggest is getting a PowerBook or iBook from the refurb store - which will save you a hundred or so $$ OR look on ebay for a machine in the $5-600 mark.

You're right, it's not really fair that there is no discount for highschool students. Some students have to actually work for their money and don't have mommy and daddy to fork out $1000+ on a computer (though, what are you doing with several desktops if you are so impoverished?:p ). They say working 'builds character', but it's no damn fun! Make sure you play a little before you end up an embittered 30-something!... anyway, Are you close enough to any teachers that you could ask to forego their laptop discount for the year?

yt
 
yojitani said:
As people have been saying here, the refurb store sells macs for the same or less than the edu store.

The MacBook Pro is $1999 w/o discount and $1799 w edu discount BUT if you could stand a slightly slower intel (1.83) the early MBP is $1549 refurb.

yt
Click to expand...
Isnt the MacBook Pro 2.0GHz refurbd $1699? Education is $1799 and new is $1999. Yeah the 1.83 is probably lower.
 
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