Are you an educator, student, or do you have a student in your family? If so, you always get a discount on your purchase of a Macintosh computer. You’ll never see any ginormous discounts on Macs, but the educational discount is a nice little perk (and they’ll let you take it if you have any kids in the house or a kid in college, so that’s nice).
Plus, now through September 16th, 2007, they’re having a back to school special for college students—buy a Mac and get a qualifying iPod for free. (This one doesn’t include younger students; you must be an educator or a college student.) Don’t want an iPod? No problem, get cash back instead.
(Pssst! Kailani emailed me to point out that you can also get a free printer with this deal. Thanks, Kailani!)
This post brought to you by the letter M (Macintosh), the number 10 (what time it is right now) and the fact that both of my (non-Mac) computers are dying. Alas.
Oh I love my Mac. Once you have Mac, you won’t go back. ehehehe…
Also, Apple’s use of the word educator covers a broad list of people. Basically, anyone who works for a school district is eligible for educator discounts. It doesn’t matter if you are a secretary, food service provider, or a member of the janitorial staff. You only need to be an employee of a school district. Just present (or fax) your school id or pay stub and they will honor the educator’s discount.
A year ago we had two PCs that were dying, so we had to get something new. My husband (who is a Microsoft Certified System Engineer) decided it was time to go Mac, and we were able to use his grad school discount to get him a new computer.
This year, he thinks we should get a second Mac. You know, so he can actually use the one we bought for him. Ahem.
(BTW, our two PCs are still running.)
They also give gov’t discounts, too, so if you work in a federal job, you should be able to get something. I don’t think it’s quite as high as the educator discount, but it’s still helpful.
(My girlfriend works for the gov’t, I work at a univ. When she got her son a Mac, we asked about discounts & since mine was bigger, we used mine. But if I hadn’t been around, at least she would’ve gotten something.)
Maybe it’s that Georgia heat eating up your computers?
Also keep in mind that many software companies (as in Adobe or Microsoft) give educational discounts as well. My remaining six classes all require one type of Adobe software or another and getting to the one computer lab with access isn’t possible for me. I bit the bullet and bought a package that includes all of the programs I need and more, for just over $600 with tax. Still a large chunk of change, but the same program without the discount would have been twice the price!
Beautiful! How would one get cash back instead of an iPod? I couldn’t find that in the FAQ for the offer.
Also FYI Apple gives Homeschoolers the same discount they give other educators. It’s even on their website! In-store we just brought our letter from the school system. My friend’s son used it to get a percentage off an iPod (which doesn’t seem like something for education, but whatever).
So many things have educator and homeschooler discounts – it’s always good to ask!
This is brought to you by a former Apple employee, spouse to another former Apple employee, writing from a lovely working MacBook.