I was interested in buying my niece (college student) a MacBook Air and I happened to stumble across the validation system. It required a STUDENT account for what essentially is a PARENT purchase. I have absolutely no objection to verification but I'd rather not have to run it primarily through the student's email and/or ID, especially if it may be intended as a birthday present or end-of-year surprise. It was also more complicated than it should be. Just my two cents and they may be worth a plug nickel.
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Apple Walks Back UNiDAYS Verification Requirement for U.S. Education Store
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Again, not true. K-12 students qualify for it, as they could easily have the means to purchase any Apple products for educational purposes. Who said that a 10th grader couldn’t save their money and buy their own Mac for their education?
BL.
When I read about this I was disheartened that a 3 trillion dollar company would resort to this level of scrutiny. C'mon Apple it's not as if you could not afford to give something back to the consumers of your products. Just glad this has been nipped in the nick of time. As I have a daughter who will be going to Uni this year and things like this do have a negative impact.
Not much, and quite often it’s none at all.
Why are all these home school folks complaining? My family consists of home schoolers, high school and university teachers which never used more than a laptop because the school either provided the basic necessities, as they should, or it was simply more convenient. My home schooled family members just graduated high school and don’t even have internet where they live but all managed to go to college, one even got an academic scholarship.
Man, those AirPods would make a huge impact on my kids ability to learn or maybe that Watch to help with my heart rate while teaching. No child needs anything Apple sells honestly, you’re not going to trust a kid with a $1K laptop or iPad. People are so hungry for discounts in order to justify spending money when in reality it’s just a publicity stunt.
Let be honest, from a financial standpoint Apple should only offer discounts to active students in order to get them hooked on Apple products so they continue to buy them after they’ve graduated. Nobody cares about a kindergarten teacher having the latest iMac when all those kids do is eat glue.
Man, those AirPods would make a huge impact on my kids ability to learn or maybe that Watch to help with my heart rate while teaching. No child needs anything Apple sells honestly, you’re not going to trust a kid with a $1K laptop or iPad. People are so hungry for discounts in order to justify spending money when in reality it’s just a publicity stunt.
Let be honest, from a financial standpoint Apple should only offer discounts to active students in order to get them hooked on Apple products so they continue to buy them after they’ve graduated. Nobody cares about a kindergarten teacher having the latest iMac when all those kids do is eat glue.
Is it? The actual Apple Education Store home page doesn't list them:
Back to School Student Discounts 2025
For a limited time, get AirPods or an eligible accessory of your choice when you buy Mac or iPad with education savings. Terms apply.
www.apple.com
My school gave out lifetime forwarding edu email to all engineering students.. So, I thought I got the education discount because of that.. Apparently they just never check.
Apple’s discounts aren’t terrible. Amazon has a terrible student discount program.
Do they still a government employee discount in the US? They removed it in the UK without warning.
That's interesting, the edu store used to be for all students (k-12). It sounds like they changed their policy during this switchback without telling anyone.
Homeschool does qualify.
Back to School Student Discounts 2025
For a limited time, get AirPods or an eligible accessory of your choice when you buy Mac or iPad with education savings. Terms apply.
www.apple.com
I used to take advantage of this (I'm staff at a university), but nowadays I almost always buy from the refurb store - typically there are better deals there.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll use use my 25 year old ASU email they let me keep even though I’m long out of school!
I looked into UNiDAYS and you have to be at least 16 to get a verified account. I'm fine if that's the requirement and expectation for Apple's discount, but I was planning to get a Mac this year through the Education Store for my kids who are in K-12 still. I thought their student status would be enough.
yeah, and I bought 2 laptops for my wife to use with our kids this past year, but if they change to this other system, it doesn't seem like they made allowances for that.Homeschool does qualify.
Back to School Student Discounts 2025
For a limited time, get AirPods or an eligible accessory of your choice when you buy Mac or iPad with education savings. Terms apply.www.apple.com
They should do just like Adobe does. Use a .edu email address to verify or if there is no email you can send in your student ID or proof of employment if you are a teacher / staff. The email address streamlines about 80% of cases.
My employer / former school (University of Washington) keeps email addresses around forever. You lose access to your campus mailbox (which nowadays is just Gmail or O365 anyway), but you can set the address up as a forward - so the address continues to work.
I know that's true for former students and faculty at least - not sure about when staff leave. Update: it's true for staff too.
Not to mention all the kids that are now home schooled which don’t have any student ID’s or people that go to online classes for college. Glad Apple backtracked the requirement.
Exactly. The only time the edu store is good is if the device is newly released. Refurbs and sales are generally a better deal, although I guess if you were doing a BTO you'd save, since no other retailers generally do a BTO mac.