Apple Student Discount 2011

It’s 2011 and time to update our Apple Student discount information from our previous Apple student discount post.  The basic information regarding the Apple student discount remain the same, so for the sake of brevity here is a quick and easy to read run down on the discount program:

What link do I use to get to the Apple student discount area?

• Here’s a link to the Apple store for education, Apple asks you to select your school and then you are whisked to the Apple education store with the 10% off academic pricing

How much is the Apple education discount?

• About 5 – 10% off on Mac computers and Mac software, iPod and iPad devices do not qualify for any discount (sadly).

Who qualifies for the Apple Student Discount?

• Grades K – 12 school students, undergraduate college and graduate college students.
• Anyone employed in the academic field (teachers, staff, board members etc.)
• Parent of any student making a purchase for them

As an example of the kind of discounts you get I took a screenshot of the front of the Apple store with education pricing below:

And then here’s a screenshot of the Apple store without education pricing:

Notice that only Mac computers get a discount, an example of one of the best deals is the MacBook Pro that starts from $1,099 in the education store but starts at $1,199 for regular people of the world, so that’s a $100 discount or just under 10% for this case.

Recommendation for best Apple student laptop for 2011

My personal opinion is that the MacBook Air 13” model is one of the best options for students looking to buy a Mac.  It’s so incredibly thin and light at only 3lbs and yet has all the power you’ll need for most tasks a student has to perform on a computer.  The one downside is of course the price, I would recommend getting the 256GB storage version along with 4GB of RAM and that will set you back over $1,600 and that’s even with the $50 student discount applied.

Another good option is the MacBook Pro 13” version, you can get the MacBook Pro 13” model for $1,099 in the education store and don’t need to upgrade anything from the base level, so it’s around $500 cheaper than the MacBook Air 13” and has a built-in optical drive and more power, though it does of course weigh more at 4.5lbs.

Any better deals on Macs for students?

I personally shop a lot at Amazon.com because they offer free Amazon Prime shipping to students (that’s free 2-day shipping) and also because there are no state sales taxes on goods in most states.  Often times their prices are competitive with or even better than the Apple education store.  For instance, the MacBook Pro 13” is $1,128.99 at Amazon.com right now and since there’s no sales tax or shipping charges that is the final price.  If I buy through Apple.com there is a sales tax of around 6.5% for my state, which adds over $65 on top of the $1,099 price so right away it’s more expensive than just shopping via Amazon.  And since Apple does not offer a student discount on iPods or the iPad it’s almost always cheaper to shop at Amazon for those devices due to the avoidance of a sales tax and generally cheaper prices than Apple.com.

Another store I like that often has good deals on Apple MacBooks is MicroCenter.  MicroCenter has a few bricks and mortar locations and often have great deals on Macs.  For instance, you can get the MacBook Pro 13 at MicroCenter for an incredible $999 at the moment, but it’s only for in-store pickup and cannot be shipped so you have to be lucky enough to have a Micro Center nearby to where you live to score on their deals.