student discounts

8 College Perks You Might Be Missing Out On

Samantha Stauf — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 08:30:17 +0000

College is expensive. Many students struggle to find the funds to attend college and avoid massive student debt. And while student debt is an ongoing issue, there are many ways a student ID can provide big savings elsewhere. Savvy college students can utilize free or discounted activities and products to maximize their college experience and minimize their expenses. Here are eight college perks that you might be missing out on.

1. Reduced or free museum admission

Many museums and art galleries offer free or reduced admission to college students. New York University, for example, has a program called Museum Gateway that grants free admission to nearly a dozen museums and art galleries in New York City.

Even if the college doesn't have a direct partnership with the museum to provide free admission to students, the museum might still have a student discount. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, for example, offers free admission with a valid student ID. (See also: 20+ Freebies for College Students)

2. Student discounts on computers

Computers are a vital tool. While students can access computers at local and college libraries, it can be a tad inconvenient. Computer manufacturers have created student discount programs to lower the monetary burden of students who need a computer.

HP Academy offers students 20 percent off HP products.
Dell University offers students 20 percent off Dell products.
Microsoft offers students up to 10 percent off Microsoft computers.
Lenovo offers students 15 percent of Lenovo products.

If you get really lucky, the university might also offer additional savings or a free computer or tablet upon enrollment.

3. Discounted or free software

Software can be essential for a successful college career. Spreadsheets, word processing, presentation programs, and graphics editing programs are expensive. Thankfully, as a student, you are spared the high cost of the programs.

Office 365 is free to all students with a valid student ID. You can either download the programs from your college's website or from Microsoft.
Adobe offers students 60 percent off the price of their photography and design apps.

4. Free access to gyms and rec centers

Most on-campus colleges tend to have a gym and rec center that are free for students to utilize. The perks offered in the gyms are highly dependent on the school. Perks range from workout equipment, one-on-one personal training, online, or on-site workout classes, lap pools, lazy rivers, hot tubs, rock climbing centers, and indoor recreation rooms for various intramural sports. Gym and rec center memberships are expensive, so it's definitely worth taking advantage of this perk.

If you're an online student without access to your university's gym, private gyms often offer a student discount you can cash in on.

5. Free entertainment

Colleges often offer free admission to movie screenings, plays, guest speakers, sporting events, and concerts. These college-funded events can be great ways to fill your free time without dipping into your bank account.

6. Free mental health counseling and services

College life can be stressful. Students who are mentally and emotionally healthy have a slightly higher chance of succeeding at school. In order to help students maintain a good mental health, many colleges offer free individual, group, or couples therapy. The sessions are meant to help students deal with issues, manage their personal problems, and develop coping strategies. This is a free service that can, in many cases, save your educational career.

7. Discounted airfare and hotels

Whether it's for summer break, visiting the family, or returning to school, plane tickets and hotels can be horrendously expensive. The good news is that there are travel sites that offer discounted prices to students.

Student Universe lets students buy flights and hotels at a discounted rate. A student ID or class schedule will often be required to prove that you are a student.
CheapOAir has a student travel page that offers discounted rates.
STA Travel offers an International Student Identity Card that provides discounts on flights and hotels.

8. Clothing discounts

Students can receive special discounts at dozens of clothing retailers. This is especially true for students who need more formal clothing for internships or their first job after college.

Once you have a little money to spend, go shopping for a few work-approved outfits before you graduate. Check out Banana Republic, J. Crew, Ann Taylor, Club Monaco, Sam's Club for student discounts. (See also: 15 Sites Where the Right Email Address Can Save You Money)

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This article is from Samantha Stauf of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

15 Sites Where the Right Email Address Can Save You Money

Damian Davila — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 08:31:07 +0000

Some email addresses are worth more than others. Holders of .edu, .mil, and .gov email addresses can access special discounts. By sharing this one piece of information, you could be unlocking some mega savings on the things you buy. (See also: 20+ Freebies for College Students)

For students

With the following deals, you can stock up on extra ramen and snacks to fuel your studies.

1. Amazon

Your .edu address gets a six-month trial of Amazon Prime Student, offering you free two-day shipping and 50 percent off Amazon Prime once the trial period ends. This version of Prime includes instant access to video streaming, unlimited reading on any device, and free unlimited photo storage through Prime Photos.

2. Apple

If you've got an .edu email address, you're eligible to score the following deals.

You can join Apple Music at a discounted monthly rate of $4.99 (regular price is $9.99 per month).
Discounts ranging from $50 to $100 on select hardware and software.
Purchase the Pro Apps Bundle for Education, including Final Cut Pro X, Logic Pro X, Motion 5, Compressor 4, and MainStage 3, for about one third of the regular cost.

3. GitHub

In addition to your school email address, you will need to provide a copy of your student ID or other official form of enrollment and you can score a free student developer pack. This pack provides you free access to great developer tools, including Microsoft Azure, NameCheap, and Sentry, and discounts or credits to services such as HackHands and Stripe.

4. Microsoft

Get Microsoft Office 365, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Microsoft Teams, for free with your valid school email address.

5. Prezi

Get the education version of presentation software Prezi for free or get the EDU Plus version starting at $7 per month.

6. The New York Times

Save over 50 percent on subscription plans as an educator or student. Get digital access for $1.00 a week, all access for $1.50 a week, or print delivery and all access for as low as $4.95 a week.

7. The Wall Street Journal

Students can get unlimited access to WSJ.com for 15 weeks for $15, or one year for $49.

For military members

These retailers make it a point to offer exclusive deals for members of the military. (See also: Best Credit Cards for Military Families)

8. AT&T

Provide your .mil email address at the AT&T Signature Program to receive 15 percent off the monthly service charge on qualified plans, including AT&T unlimited plans.

9. Best Bully Sticks

Active military can get a 15 percent off code and free shipping on orders over $49 by sending an email from their .mil email address to info@bestbullysticks.com. Pet retailer Best Bully Sticks will then send a custom coupon code.

10. Delta Vacations

Submit your military email address using the "Before You Book" form on the upper right of the Delta Vacations microsite to receive a personal discount eCertificate to use on your next vacation booking. Save up to $300 on your next vacation and receive 500 extra bonus miles per person per booking.

11. ID.me

This company has partnerships for discounts, rebates, and cashback offers with several brands including: Hot Wire, Lenovo, Tough Mudder, Overstock, and Under Armour. To sign up for a Troop ID with ID.me to verify your military affiliation, use your .mil email address.

12. Jelly Bean Quilts

Email contact@jellybeanquilts.com from your .mil email address to request a 15 percent off coupon code for any quilts, including quilts made from baby clothes.

13. Since1910.com

Enter your .mil email address on jeweler site Since1910 and receive a 10 percent coupon code off an engagement ring or wedding band of your choice (discount does not apply to center diamond).

14. Verizon

If you have a military-issued email you can land a 15 percent discount off your monthly Verizon Wireless service and 25 percent discount off select accessories.

15. The Washington Post

With The Washington Post, everyone gets a deal! Well, not everyone, but anyone with a military, government, or student email address will be able to get a subscription to The Washington Post for free. And what's better than free stuff? Nothing.

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This article is from Damian Davila of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

6 Back-to-School Shopping Hacks for Big Savings

Kyle James — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 17:00:15 +0000

Back-to-school season has many parents pulling out their child's school supply list and dreading the impending costs. But never fear: whether it's the simple pack of pencils, or the expensive laptop computer, here are six shopping tips to help you maximize your savings.

1. Avoid Cartoon Characters

When shopping for your child's backpack, binder, and accessories, avoid items with a cartoon character plastered on them. This includes Disney, Pixar, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network characters of all shapes and sizes. They're almost always 25%–30% more expensive than products without any characters or themes on them. If this is a big deal for your child, simply buy some cheap stickers of their favorite characters and let them decorate their stuff to their heart's content. When it comes to backpacks, look for quality "character-free" brands like Timberland, JanSport, Rockland, and Embark that will easily last the entire school year, and often many more.

2. Always Shop Your Backpack First

Before you visit any store or website, consider "shopping" your backpack, closet, and desk for school supplies. Take your child's back-to-school shopping list and look for items you already own which still have shelf-life remaining. You'll often be amazed at the items you can cross off your list without spending a cent. Items to look for include things like pencils, pens, markers, notebooks, and rulers. My wife and I often stock up on school supplies when we find deals and forget that we buried them in the desk drawer or stashed them away in a closet somewhere. If this sounds like something you'd do as well, be sure to check what you have at home before you head to the store.

3. Get a Price Match if an Item Is Sold Out

The last few back-to-school shopping seasons have shown terrific deals from office supply stores like Staples, Office Depot, and OfficeMax. This year will be no different. For example, Staples is already advertising $.50 bottles of glue and $.68 for a dozen pencils. But the rub on these deals is they are often of very limited in quantity, and sell out quickly, as they're nothing more than loss-leaders designed to get you in the doors. So if you walk into an office supply store and the deal you're looking for is already gone, take advantage of the price match policy at Walmart and Target and get the same low price. You can also bypass the office supply store altogether and take the ad directly to Walmart or Target for your price match. Here is what you need to know:

Walmart Price Match Policy

While you're not required to take the office supply ad into Walmart for verification, it will greatly speed up the process if you do. Walmart will match the lower price as long as the item is identical to what they stock. This includes size, quantity, brand, and color. If the price match reduces the Walmart price by more than 50%, it will require a supervisor's approval.

Target Price Match Policy

Simply take your office supply store ad to the Target "Guest Services" desk and they'll help you with your price match. Item must be identical and the price must be clearly stated on the competitor's print ad.

4. Look for Tech Discounts for Students

If you're in high school or college, and shopping for a laptop or tablet for school, be sure you take advantage of student-specific tech discounts. Here are a few to be aware of.

Best Buy College Student Deals

College students can sign-up for free and get exclusive Best Buy deals and coupons. Expect student discounts on laptops, MacBooks, backpacks, and even dorm room stuff like microwaves and coffee makers. Best Buy reserves the right to require documentation showing that you're a current college student. Tip: Having a .edu email address always gets you in the program.

Dell University

Get exclusive student deals on new laptops, desktops, and electronics through Dell University. Savings are typically in the 15%–20% off range compared to the price of not being in the program.

Apple Store for Education

Apple education pricing is available to college students, parents buying for college students, faculty, homeschool teachers, and staff at all grade levels. You can currently get $200 off a new Mac and up to $20 off a new iPad.

5. Shop Alone If Possible

This tip is not very popular with many kids. But if you're back-to-school shopping for younger kids, you'll often be better off doing it alone. Keep in mind that your goal is to get in and get out of the store and pay the least amount possible on quality products. Kids can often throw you off your money-saving mojo and talk you into the Disney Frozen binder or the LeBron James Nike backpack that'll be marked way up. Having three kids of my own, I speak from experience on this one. Leave them at home and maximize your savings. Let them organize and decorate the back-to-school items once you get home and they'll still feel a part of the process.

6. Never Buy Everything From a Single Store

The single best way to make sure you pay more than you should on back-to-school supplies is to stroll into one store and buy everything on your list. Doesn't matter what store it is. The fact of the matter is that you might get some deals, but you'll inevitably pay full-price on quite a bit of stuff. Instead, I recommend perusing the sales flyers as they come out and buy only when you find a deal on something you need.

With a little bit of planning and smart shopping you can save a good chunk of change on your back-to-school shopping this year. This is especially true if you can hold retailers to their price match policies and take advantage of student discounts when buying tech. Happy savings.

How do you save money when stocking up for the new school year?

This article is from Kyle James of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Big List of Student Discounts

Kelly Kehoe — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:14 +0000

If you’re barely scraping by on your university student’s income (or Mom and Dad are giving you a very limited budget), then student discounts can really help you to stretch those funds until the end of the month. The following is a list of the major discounts obtainable to those with a valid student ID card (or college email address). (See also: 9 Places to Get Student Discounts)

Electronics

If you're looking for great deals on pricey gadgets for school, then look no further than the following section.

Apple Store for Education

The Apple Store for Education offers discounts its products (particularly favorable in regards to MacBooks and software) for college students and teachers, administrators, staff, and board members for K-12.

HP Pavilion

There are PC and laptop discounts for students and educators at HP Pavilion's store online.

Dell University

You can get discounts on PCs and laptops specially designed with students’ needs in mind at Dell University.

Sony Education Store

Students can find discounts of up to 10% on VAIO products upon checkout at the Sony Education Store.

Travel

Looking to travel on a budget as a college student? There are several deals created just for you!

Student Universe

One of the best websites offering low-cost flights and hotel bookings for students is StudentUniverse.com. I’ve used this one personally, and most flight offerings were much less than the stated price on airline websites, and even less than most other “discount travel” sites.

American Airlines

One of the biggest airlines in the U.S., American Airlines offers flight discounts for current college students, including 5% on land components (hotels, tours, rental cars, theme park tickets, etc.) when booking through their site.

Student Air Travel Association

One of the biggest travel agencies in the world is the Student Air Travel Association, targeting the traveling college student crowd.

Squaw Valley Lift Tickets

College students can find $59 Squaw Valley Lift Tickets (regularly $70-84) at the world-renowned skiing resort that once hosted the Winter Olympics. You can check to see if your local ski area offers discounts as well.

Food

Restaurants in college towns love university students for two reasons: they eat a lot, and they tell their friends afterwards (assuming the food was good). Relying on word of mouth marketing is crucial to these food joints staying in business, so they often offer student specials throughout the week. You never know which restaurants and fast food places may offer a student discount, so be sure to carry your school ID with you wherever you go, just in case.

Entertainment

Looking for a way to spend a few hours without a lot of cash? Check out the following options for entertainment.

Regal Movie Theaters

Students can get discounted movie tickets on select days at Regal Movie Theaters (price depends on location).

Several other movie theaters offer discounts for students as well. For more information, either call or check the website of your local cinema.

Broadway Shows

To help students save money and still get to see their favorite performances, many Broadway shows have begun offering tickets through a Student Rush pricing structure.

For smaller theaters, especially those on high school or university campuses, student discounts are usually offered to those who bring a form of ID. To see if a local theater offers student discounts, give them a call or check for ticketing options online.

Museums

Across the country, there are hundreds of museums that value their educationally inclined visitors and often have significant discounts offered to high school and college students with valid ID cards. For example, Columbia University students get free admission to 34 museums in New York through the CU Arts Program. The same applies for many other cities, so be sure to contact the museum before purchasing tickets. You might be able to save as much as 50% or more off of the regular admission price!

Basics

The following three items listed do not fit into a specific category, but they are too good not to mention.

International Student Identity Card

The International Student Identity Card has over 4.5 million members worldwide and over 40,000 discounts currently offered to members. This includes language schools, transportation, magazines, hostels, motels, clothing, etc.

Amazon Student

Free two-day shipping on millions of items and special deals and promotions offered frequently to members of Amazon Student.

Sam's Club

Get a $15 gift card through the Sam’s Club collegiate program when you sign up or renew your membership. This gives you access to the low prices on their entire inventory, saving you a bundle while struggling to get by in college.

What about your college town? Feel free to share other student discounts that you know about in the comments below.

This article is from Kelly Kehoe of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

9 Places to Get Student Discounts

Elizabeth Lang — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:00:08 +0000

September is nearly over, which means that the excitement of starting a new school year has worn off for most students. The realities of studying and student loans have set in.

Thankfully there are a lot of benefits to being a student — including discounts at a wide range of stores. I've compiled categories and specific retail chains that are known for their student discounts. (See also: The College Freshman Budget)

Technology

As a student, perhaps the greatest discount you'll get is on technology. And if this is your last year in school, consider buying that software or hardware you've had your eye on. Here are some of the most popular technology discounts for students:

Travel

In my experience student discounts on travel aren't all they're advertised to be. Sometimes you may get a small discount on airfare, but usually when I've looked at the popular student travel sites the prices are nearly the same. That said, if you have an upcoming trip, student travel discounts are worth looking into:

Amtrak
Student Airfare at STA or Student Universe
Local Transportation (e.g. bus/subway passes for students)
ISIC Card (best for students traveling or studying abroad)

Entertainment

Movie theaters are the most widely known for offering student discounts, though there are plenty of other entertainment options for students:

Theater Tickets
Museum Tickets
Sports (watch your university's newspapers for "college nights")

Newspaper

Check your favorite newspapers for disocunts (e.g. Wall Street Journal)

Food

Many local restaurants offer student discounts. Don't be shy — ask the hostess when you arrive or check your student paper to watch for special deals.

Cell Phone Service

If you're a student and paying full price for your cell phone, you should immediately contact your carrier to get a discounted rate:

Clothes

There aren't too many big chain retail shops that offer student discounts, but be sure to look at smaller retailers around your school:

J Crew (even on clearance wear)
Old Navy (Events throughout the year, such as this one)

Online

These are some deals that can be found online:

Student Advantage offers a discount card that includes a student discount at Target Online. The fee is $20 for 1 year — I'm not sure which of these discounts you would qualify for without the card, but it seems like it could pay off.
Student Buying Guide is a blog aimed specifically at providing students with deals and coupons.
Amazon Prime Membership (Amazon has just started offering their Prime membership for free to students for a year. This means free 2-day shipping on any of their products.)
But perhaps the best site I've come across is Edhance, a free site which offers student deals.

Student Union

Don't forget to check for student discounts at your student union. I know my school's student union information desk sells discounted movie tickets, museum tickets and can tell me about a lot of other deals that I might not otherwise know about.

What student discounts do you find particularly helpful?

This article is from Elizabeth Lang of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: