Duke's iPod
My daughter will be attending Duke as a freshman in the Fall, so I have a few comments and observations:
1) Only a minority of Duke students come from "rich" families (unless you use the Democrat definition of "rich" which is just about anyone not on welfare). In our case, she would not be attending Duke without the help of significant scholarships, grants and loans. I've been VERY impressed with Duke's dedication to its mission to recruit students from all walks of life - and this complement comes from a Carolina grad!!
2) We've been told that the iPods will be pre-loaded with the usual "how-do-I/where-do-I" freshman orientation info, complete with maps and a calendar. Excellent use of the technology, I'd say. I'm not sure about this, but it seems to me that we were also told that it would be the 15G model, so it looks like Apple may be cleaning out their warehouse in preparation of the release of new iPods.
3) The program announcement came too late to be a recruiting tool - the selection letters had long been distributed and acceptance deadline had passed by the time we learned of the iPod.
4) No one's mentioned Apple's "Cram and Jam" promotion where anyone buying certain new Macs with educational discount can get up to a $200 rebate on an iPod. Apple's trying to push iPod tech into education in ways other than simply providing them to Duke freshmen.
5) Duke is very Mac-friendly and offer some killer deals through their campus Apple Store. We'll be buying our daughter a 12" Powerbook with Airport Extreme, SuperDrive, 3 year Applecare and various and sundry accessories for under $1600 - wow!!! I'm not surprised to see Apple and Duke work out a program like this together.
6) ESPN.com has picked Duke to be 4th in ACC Basketball this season (behind Wake, UNC, and GT). Dookies will need something to do on those long cold winter nights when there are no bonfires to be lit...
