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July 13, 2010 7:26 AM

After many years, I am once again in possession of a student ID and e-mail address. What are some offers I can take advantage of with them?

I'm starting grad school in a couple months, and have been issued my School .edu address (student ID will be forthcoming soon). I noticed today that Amazon was offering a free year of Prime for students, so I signed up. That got me to thinking - what else can I get that might be useful?

I'm aware of Microsoft's software deals, but that's about it for internet retailers. Locally, I know that many of the museums in the Boston area offer free admission for local college students. What else am I missing out on?

I have a pretty well established "adult" life, so I don't need more credit cards or pizza booklets.

posted by backseatpilot to education (35 answers total)

Call your cellphone provider and see if they have a discount for you. ATT seems to have one for every college/uni in the area.
posted by jwells at 7:28 AM on July 13, 2010

Lots of hardware/software companies besides Microsoft offer student discounts, including Apple and Adobe. You can probably get a student rate for tickets at your local movie theater too.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 7:31 AM on July 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I don't know Microsoft's student deal, but Apple's is great. When we bought my daughter a MacBook last year they threw in an iPod Touch and a printer/scanner. And dropped the price 10%. So that's good, if you want to go Mac.
posted by SLC Mom at 7:33 AM on July 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Cheap movies.
posted by special-k at 7:36 AM on July 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

You could get an International Student Identity Card.
posted by cranberrymonger at 7:38 AM on July 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

Once, after I graduated, I had to take something out at my university's library. They were asking $150 for a library card (!) (--who knew???). Turns out, if you were a student you could get one for free. Even after you're not a student, don't forget to look into alumni perks. It saved me $150.
posted by Ys at 7:41 AM on July 13, 2010

I would just start asking everywhere if they offer a student discount. Three that stick out in my memory from my collage days: public transportation (buses and taxis), lots of restaurants, the local garage I took my car to for oil changes. I never would have found these if I hadn't asked.
posted by geekchic at 7:42 AM on July 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Amazon is offering a free one-year Prime subscription to students with an .edu email address.

Also, I went into a Banana Republic the other day and the checkout girl mentioned discounts for students. It's likely that their partner stores will also discount if you flash your ID at the checkout counter.
posted by litnerd at 7:47 AM on July 13, 2010 [5 favorites]

...wow, I didn't read your question closely enough. Please disregard the first part of my answer. The second part still stands.
posted by litnerd at 7:49 AM on July 13, 2010

If you have pets, sometimes vets close to the university will offer a discount.
posted by questionsandanchors at 7:51 AM on July 13, 2010

J. Crew has a 15% student discount in-store (so does their sister store, Madewell, but you seem to be a dude).

Depending on what school you go to, you'll have more specific perks. For example, Tufts students always get free admission to the MFA (which you can't get into free with just any student ID) because of its partnership with SMFA.
posted by oinopaponton at 7:51 AM on July 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh, also, some car insurance providers will decrease your premium if you have above a certain GPA.
posted by oinopaponton at 7:52 AM on July 13, 2010

Some gyms offer discounted membership fees for students.
posted by silverstatue at 7:59 AM on July 13, 2010

The symphony has student rush tickets. Many theatres etc will also have student discounts or rush tickets.
posted by kickingtheground at 7:59 AM on July 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

I the UK you can use your student card to get an ISIC (as mentioned above), and use the ISIC to get a Young Person's (16-25) Railcard, even as a mature student (it's also officially possible to get one without an ISIC by getting a lecturer to sign a photo and getting the office to stamp the form and yeah, how much hassle is all that). And then you get 1/3 off your rail travel.

So it may be worth looking into, to find out if there are offers for 'young people', for which you may no longer automatically qualify, that you can get with a student card or ISIC.
posted by Lebannen at 8:07 AM on July 13, 2010

[ton of comments removed AMAZON PRIME IS IN THE QUESTION]
posted by jessamyn at 8:14 AM on July 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

if you buy a mac for college, you can get an ipod touch free.
posted by patheral at 8:17 AM on July 13, 2010

STA Travel and Student Universe have some student rates on airfare, hotels, rail travel, etc.
posted by srah at 8:20 AM on July 13, 2010

You can buy Mathematica for a small fraction of it's regular price.
posted by neuron at 8:26 AM on July 13, 2010

Go to google and type in .edu deals.
posted by govtdrone at 8:34 AM on July 13, 2010 [4 favorites]

Art supplies! Most art supply stores offer a student discount, and I've yet to find one that insists on you specifically being an art student.

Even if you're not into making art yourself, think gifts: everyone loves those articulated wooden people (or even classier, horses).
posted by Chichibio at 8:40 AM on July 13, 2010

Previously
posted by knile at 8:46 AM on July 13, 2010

Your school almost certainly has contracted discounts with cell phone providers. You can check with your school's corporate purchasing office. Whoever handles the school's cell phones can give you the information. Even if your school uses, say, AT&T, they're probably a member of a larger corporate purchasing organization that has contracted discounts with Verizon and Sprint, which can be extended to employees. (T-Mobile doesn't really do corporate phones, but T-Mobile is pretty cheap to begin with.)

For all the carriers, it may be as easy as going into a local retail outlet (go to a corporate store, not a reseller like Wireless City or Best Buy) and showing your student ID.

For Verizon, you go to their Employee Discount page and put in your email. If your email address matches one of the domains that they have listed, you should get a confirmation email and go from there.

For AT&T, you go to their AT&T Premier Website and put in your email. If your email address matches one of the domains that they have listed, you should get a confirmation email and go from there.

I don't believe that Sprint has a discount website.

BTW, if you find out that your school has a discount but the system doesn't accept your email address, you may need the corporate purchasing department to contact the wireless company to add your school's domain. For instance, I was having trouble getting the AT&T discount to go through, and our AT&T rep just had to submit my work email address. Oh also if you are having trouble getting anywhere with your school's purchasing department, and your school has an affiliated hospital or medical school, try their purchasing department.

(Yes, I handle my company's cell phones, can you tell?)
posted by radioamy at 9:15 AM on July 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you're interested in HDR photography, you can get Photomatix for 60% off (or 75% if you happen to be a photography student).
posted by Skybly at 9:28 AM on July 13, 2010

prezi.com has free accounts for those with .edu addresses.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 9:40 AM on July 13, 2010 [4 favorites]

Awesome. I'm going to look into that International Student discount card, but I'm going to be going to school part-time so I don't know if I can finagle it.
posted by backseatpilot at 10:37 AM on July 13, 2010

My university offers discount tickets to the zoo, movies, plays, museums, etc. A lot of people know about the free concert tickets, but not the free tickets to more mundane activities. Check if your school has similar programs through the student union.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 10:45 AM on July 13, 2010

Academic Superstore.
posted by lex mercatoria at 11:22 AM on July 13, 2010

My .edu address allowed me to access my university's proxy server, which means that I could access all available academic journals in the comfort of my apartment.

Haven't done that in awhile, but it's nice to know the option exists.
posted by Turkey Glue at 1:32 PM on July 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

Your school may also give you free access to the online OED. Which is awesome.

NYU used to even provide access to alumni. Now they don't. And now I'm cranky.
posted by davidjmcgee at 2:42 PM on July 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

Dittoing Turkey Glue about the academic journals; virtually all unis/colleges that are big enough will have access to online databases with electronic journal collections and full-text research articles. This is actually a gold mine of information the average person has no access to, because these database articles normally cost $20-30 apiece. (Though physical access to the uni library can be good enough.)

If you have scientific proclivities or just any particular, deep curiosity about specific fields/subjects, you can download these full-text articles for free. For example, I saved a bunch of research articles about food cholesterol in relation to heart disease and can actually bring up educated conversation about such topics instead of relying on crappy "science journalism." Or staying on top of the latest articles/news about technology for my particular career field.
posted by Ky at 2:54 PM on July 13, 2010

Awesome question - I'm a new adult grad student this fall as well. Your university likely has licenses for various expensive software packages. I just downloaded MATLAB and Mathematica for free (although licenses need to be renewed annually, so I can only use them while I'm a student).
posted by jpdoane at 6:39 PM on July 13, 2010

A subscription to the Economist is way cheaper as a student. One of the better sources of international news. Almost cost prohibitive if you're not a student and don't actually need to be up to date on the world.
posted by Deathalicious at 11:01 AM on July 19, 2010

Look into the software your bookstore or student faculty association offers. I got Windows 7 Ultimate for $15 from my school, and Microsoft Word Enterprise for free
posted by anonymish at 10:22 PM on July 19, 2010

I get free Norton Anti Virus for all my computers from my school's website.
posted by WhiteWhale at 5:06 PM on July 23, 2010