Many places offer discounts for students – whether it is through deals with student associations, student programs or by their own accord. For tech and software, there aren’t a lot of places that offer such a discount. However, for those that do, they are either heavily discounted or for free. So we’ve decided to collate the best tech and software student discounts and put them in this handy little guide.
And we are assuming that you are an active university student (because there are many ways to pretend you are, when you’re actually not).
Laptop Discounts
We all know that Apple has discounts for university students, but did you know Dell and Lenovo also offer special education pricing? For Dell, students can claim a discount by using a coupon code and discounts (at the time of writing) where you can save up to 15% off any Dell product, 5% off on Alienware systems, and 15% off any electronics, software and accessories.
Similar to Apple, Lenovo has an entire store dedicated for students. The discounts depend on the laptop – for instance, the Edge Series drops from $1154.51 to $517.44 for students, while the base model for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon drops from $1785.91 to $1221.06.
You should also consider checking with your university to see if they have deals with manufacturers to offer their products at a discount. Some might advertise them on their websites; others, like Monash, don’t. So it’s best to ask.
[Apple Education]
[Dell Education]
[Lenovo Education]
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office 2013 introduces a new way of getting Office – paying a subscription for it every year. For students, however, Microsoft gives you a brilliant deal – a 4 year subscription to Office 365 for only $99.
So, what’s included? You can install Office on two computers (both Windows and Mac) instead of the usual five on Office 365 Home Premium. But you get access to the entire suite of Windows and Mac applications, including latest updates. You also got 20GB of additional storage on SkyDrive, and get 60 minutes of Skype calls each month to phone relatives and friends.
Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
[Microsoft Office 365 University]
Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe’s Creative Suite is well regarded, and for some reason it is heavily discounted if you are a teacher or student. For example, purchasing Photoshop CS6 from Adobe is $1062 if you are not a student; but $201 if you are a student or teacher. That’s around 80% off the retail price. (Plus, the advantage of getting it now means that you can simply pay for the cheaper upgrade pricing instead of the full version all the time)
Of course, there is another alternative – buy a subscription. Adobe’s subscription service, Creative Cloud, offers a ‘Students & Teachers’ plan for only AU$24.99 a month. However, as a special promotion until April 11, they have reduced that price to AU$14.99 a month for the first year of your subscription.
So, what do you get in your subscription? You get access to all of the Creative Suite applications like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, After Effects and Premiere Pro; as well as additional software for Creative Cloud like Adobe Muse and Edge Tools. You also get 20GB of cloud storage that you can access anywhere; and, if you are a mobile developer, you can also compile apps to multiple platforms in the cloud.
DreamSpark
If you are in university learning how to develop applications, then Microsoft’s DreamSpark has got you covered – well, only if you’re developing items for Windows. Under the DreamSpark program, you get Visual Studio Professional for free, as well as Microsoft’s Expression Studio 4 Ultimate and XNA Game Studio. And if you want to jump into developing for Windows Phone – there is also Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone.
If you are University student, however, you should see if your university offers DreamSpark Premium – previously known as the MSDN Academic Alliance. Because you can download a free copy of Windows 8 and Windows 7. Yes, free. In addition, you get access to Visual Studio Premium and Ultimate editions. Do note, some universities will restrict access to labs – so bring a USB drive to store your copy of Windows.
* only available through DreamSpark Premium
AutoCAD and Maya
Are you a student studying engineering or multimedia? Autodesk does give some of its products for free for students. This includes AutoCAD and its many variants; 3D modelling software 3ds Max; and 3D animation software Maya. Students also get free access to its Autodesk 360 Cloud Services, where you can use their servers to produce simulations and renders of projects.
There are some restrictions – namely that you cannot use this for commercial or for-profit purposes; and you cannot upgrade your student version of the software to the commercial licence. As well, you will see a watermark (though apparently, the next release of software “will no longer include a watermark”)
[Autodesk Education Community]
Other Discounts
- GitHub offers students a free Micro account (usually $7 a month) for class projects, thesis or for your research degree. You get 5 private repositories, as well as unlimited collaborators and public repositories. You will need to have a personal account before you can claim it.
- If you want to impress your class with presentations (especially for the Arts students), then have a look at Prezi. This tool lets you create more dynamic presentations than the simple slideshow from PowerPoint. For students, they are offering a free education plan for students with 500MB of storage (free users typically get 100MB).
- Looking for a way to copy your music and video files from your iPod touch, iPhone or iPad, but your computer has been wiped clean? Want to have an easier way to transfer files between your iDevice and your computer? Try DiskAid – and they are a free licence (previously US$29.90) to students. If your university is not listed, then they will ask a bit more information before they approve or reject your request.
- Looking for more software on an education discount? Try EducationSoftware.com.au. Some software with education pricing include Dragon Dictate, Sony Movie Studio Platinum Suite, Avid Studio, and Parallels Desktop for Mac.
Some sources for this post include: Reddit and Neerav Bhatt
Image by: c_ambler