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Need help: Writing letter why Mac ppl and not just PC ppl should get a stipend

Spritey

Spritey

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 22, 2006
174
0
Canada/Norway/USA
It was recently announced in my home country; ALL students entering senior high school this year HAVE to have a laptop. Since they know that not everyone can afford one, they were giving everyone an "indirect" stipend of about $450. (They made a deal with a Best Buy-like store, where students pay X dollars out of the Y price, and then the state covers the Y-x difference).

The thing is, my brother didn't want a crappy Windows-computer, so obviously he got a Mac. (As a side note: the deal they negotiated with a large electronics store to offer the PCs, was horrible. The computers were way overpriced, considering what the state was paying in addition).

Anyway, to get to the point; how do I write a letter to the state saying it's unfair that they're not giving the students who don't want to use Windows Pcs an option to get some money back? Anyone got any good points that I shouldn't forget to bring out with regards to the greatness of Mac vs. Windows?
 
no because macs suck for educational purposes

sorry, its true, some education sites NEED IE

course there is the no virus thing...
 
squeeks said:
no because macs suck for educational purposes

sorry, its true, some education sites NEED IE
Click to expand...

I disagree... strongly. I use my Mac for personal stuff, education & some professional things. It excels at all of it. And I am a Sys Admin for Windows equipment.

You can use MS Office, Apple's software (Pages, Numbers, etc) or OpenOffice to write papers and most other things you might need to do. I LOVE my Mac for all of what it does, education projects included.

Oh, and if you need IE, run XP in Parallels or Bootcamp.
 
squeeks said:
no because macs suck for educational purposes

sorry, its true, some education sites NEED IE
Click to expand...

The portal they're using works fine with Macs according to him. And it's the same portal for every senior high in the country. Obviously, he's also in senior high so he won't be needing any fancy mathlab programs, which definitely doesn't work on Mac unless you run bootcamp or something.
 
yup, my GF was trying to login into a site she needed for class and couldnt get on in either safari or firefox, had to dig out my ole PC for her to use
 
dominicansrul93 said:
I completely agree. In my high school we use this website to check grades online. It never works with safari and I have to use firefox.
Click to expand...


Firefox you can easily get on Macs for free, so that's not exactly a big deal if you ask me. And Firefox is a really good browser as well.

Pages that require IE is a whole other chapter though...
 
squeeks said:
no because macs suck for educational purposes

sorry, its true, some education sites NEED IE
Click to expand...

Funny, because I'm getting through college on a mac.

If some websites "NEED IE" as you put it (and I've yet to find any. Firefox works with almost everything), then you can always use boot camp or parallels.
 
dominicansrul93 said:
I completely agree. In my high school we use this website to check grades online. It never works with safari and I have to use firefox.
Click to expand...

You complete agree and then, admit that you can use Firefox instead of Internet Exploder? Something doesn't quite make sense there :confused:

There are still some sites written for IE but as standards as becoming more of an issues, there are fewer sites requiring any certain browser. Even some of the hardcore education providers seem to be more open.
 
Spritey said:
The portal they're using works fine with Macs according to him. And it's the same portal for every senior high in the country. Obviously, he's also in senior high so he won't be needing any fancy mathlab programs, which definitely doesn't work on Mac unless you run bootcamp or something.
Click to expand...

Interesting and here I am working on mathlab without "bootcamp or something"
 
How is the stipend given? Do you provide a receipt or does it go through the store the PC is bought at?

I would find out the mailing address for inquiries and send them a very nice letter. In it I would explain the price parity between macs and pcs, and the fact that a mac can do all the things a pc can do and that it is generally a case of personal preference/comfort level. If it is simply a case of buy a computer and mail them the receipt then you can probably get them to reimburse you just like any other customer. If the "best buy-type" shop in question is behind it they may not do it if it's being partially funded by the corporation.

When you say "Best Buy like shop" by the way, is it similar or is it owned by Best Buy? Because I know they own a chain of stores in Canada, and if it is owned by them ask if they can import a mac from one of their American counterpart stores, since all Best Buys now carry a whole miniature mac store in their computer section.
 
squeeks said:
yup, my GF was trying to login into a site she needed for class and couldnt get on in either safari or firefox, had to dig out my ole PC for her to use
Click to expand...

You're basing your whole ¨Macs suck for education¨ on that? Wow.

Ignoring the trolls - we only used Macs at my college, albeit slow ones (these were G3 iMacs and G4 eMacs in the G5 days, phew!). Uni was more or less the same, except during my stint at MMU. They seem to have Macs for the power stuff (rendering, large prints) and PC's for everything else. Dunno if this is still the case mind :eek:

Me and the computer tech used to go on about them. And that says it all. In a whole college (with a beacon status no less) there was one computer technician. He was never inundated with work, they just didn't break. Network never crashed, no viruses blah blah.

Back in school we only had Macs too. It's a very large school, about 2k pupils. We had 3 technicians this time.

They're very low-maintainence, very low power in sleep mode, ¨everything just works¨, durable and fantastic build quality, better programs (iWork, Logic and Final Cut). Plus they can be very cheap too. With Apples edu discount the Mac is cheaper than a same spec PC.

They're really the best for time saving. Which is very important in an edu machine.
 
squeeks said:
no because macs suck for educational purposes

sorry, its true, some education sites NEED IE

course there is the no virus thing...
Click to expand...
That's probably the most uninformed statement I've heard in a while especially since windows can be run on a Mac now. Technically Macs are better now in regards to being able to run any OS using bootcamp, Fusion, etc. Go spread your lies elsewhere. I used a Mac all through college in an engineering curricula...and I never had problems.

Nuc
 
Macs are perfectly compatible for education. A MB could take on a PC laptop and day. Unless the apps you are working with are PC exclusive, such as AutoCAD or sumthin', I don't see a problem. IE? FireFox has worked for everything my Mac browser doesn't (I use Shiira). And plus there's Bootcamp for those who really need it. I've used AutCAD and Inventor on my MB and runs fine. I assume this is a gradeschool thing, tell the school to eff off. When those laptops all crash and turn blue, the night before the deadline of a paper, your bro will be sittin' happy with his Mac.

As for writing the letter I don't know. If possible talk to the school directly instead of a letter. I assum you live somewhere else you can ask your parents to ask for him and just tell you parent/guardian what the arguement should be about.
 
squeeks said:
no because macs suck for educational purposes

sorry, its true, some education sites NEED IE

course there is the no virus thing...
Click to expand...

do you have any links to sites that won't work with firefox? there also are ways to make sites think that safari is IE if they won't let it work, so the browser is not a good reason to not buy a computer.
 
question fear said:
How is the stipend given? Do you provide a receipt or does it go through the store the PC is bought at?

When you say "Best Buy like shop" by the way, is it similar or is it owned by Best Buy? Because I know they own a chain of stores in Canada, and if it is owned by them ask if they can import a mac from one of their American counterpart stores, since all Best Buys now carry a whole miniature mac store in their computer section.
Click to expand...


Oh, it's not actually in Canada, it's in Europe (I just go to school here). It's a chain store, and they picked out three different computer packages, which all consisted of three overpriced computers for the price you AND the state are paying together. (Different price range for the three packages).

And I'm not exactly believing that he'll get any money back, but I'd like to bring to their notice that they're not giving their students a good choice of computers, especially if they'd like Macs which are equally good for education.

I'm in my 4th year of university and I've had no trouble getting through school on a Mac. The only times are when I need to use MS Access or Project, but that's because of my major. Also, most people don't have Access or Project in their Office package, so I'm not exactly the only one working in the computer lab for those types of assignments. (And if I really wanted to, I could have bought an Office package with Project and Access and have run it through bootcamp).
 
mufflon said:
Interesting and here I am working on mathlab without "bootcamp or something"
Click to expand...

Oh, my friend's in engineering and has a Mac, and there's some math program that doesn't work on her Mac. (And she doesn't want a copy of Windows on it). I guess it wasn't Mathlab then.
 
Spritey said:
It was recently announced in my home country; ALL students entering senior high school this year HAVE to have a laptop. Since they know that not everyone can afford one, they were giving everyone an "indirect" stipend of about $450. (They made a deal with a Best Buy-like store, where students pay X dollars out of the Y price, and then the state covers the Y-x difference).
Click to expand...

They are giving away $450 to cover the cost of a basic computer for use at school. This is meant to help underpriviledged children get a computer that they couldn't otherwise afford. The money isn't really there for you to get a discount on a super-desirable computer for home use. It is for educational purposes only and you don't NEED a Mac for that. I don't think that you will have any luck getting them to change their policy.
 
Spritey said:
It was recently announced in my home country; ALL students entering senior high school this year HAVE to have a laptop. Since they know that not everyone can afford one, they were giving everyone an "indirect" stipend of about $450. (They made a deal with a Best Buy-like store, where students pay X dollars out of the Y price, and then the state covers the Y-x difference).

The thing is, my brother didn't want a crappy Windows-computer, so obviously he got a Mac. (As a side note: the deal they negotiated with a large electronics store to offer the PCs, was horrible. The computers were way overpriced, considering what the state was paying in addition).

Anyway, to get to the point; how do I write a letter to the state saying it's unfair that they're not giving the students who don't want to use Windows Pcs an option to get some money back? Anyone got any good points that I shouldn't forget to bring out with regards to the greatness of Mac vs. Windows?
Click to expand...

That's a difficult situation. Here in Britain we had a similar problem: The government had the good idea that people should be given a bit of financial help buying computers so that they are encouraged to buy them and learn to use them. How this worked: You could buy a computer through your company, pay it off over three years, the money is taken out of your salary, and the important thing: You pay no taxes on that money. That would have been a nice scheme.

A friend of mine worked for a roughly billion-pound company that set up such a scheme. You had to go through their supplier, to their terms. A computer that you could have bought for £600 ended up costing about £1200; so depending on your tax rate it would cost you about £800 after including your tax savings. And a Mac was not on the list :) Excellent scheme. It was cancelled about a year ago. Same situation as yours; a well-meant deal by the government to help people ends up as a rip-off.

Getting any money seems very, very difficult. In England, I would write to my MP (member of parliament) to explain the situation and why you are unhappy with it since it is a government scheme; this won't get you the money but is the best you can do to get a change. Or find out who to write to at your university. Or write to Apple explaining the situation and their education people might make a similar offer to the university, which might make an interesting situation.

Don't do it with the intent of getting the money back; do it with the intent to learn how to handle bureaucracies, how to get results from people who are not necessarily willing to help you, and to change the situation.
 
gnasher729 said:
Getting any money seems very, very difficult. In England, I would write to my MP (member of parliament) to explain the situation and why you are unhappy with it since it is a government scheme; this won't get you the money but is the best you can do to get a change. Or find out who to write to at your university. Or write to Apple explaining the situation and their education people might make a similar offer to the university, which might make an interesting situation.

Don't do it with the intent of getting the money back; do it with the intent to learn how to handle bureaucracies, how to get results from people who are not necessarily willing to help you, and to change the situation.
Click to expand...

Great tip! Thanks!
 
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