Ask Marian

[#1]

Did you know if you or one of your children are now in college many technology manufacturers offer deep discounts on their products? Often, all that is needed to qualify is an email address ending in .edu, the standard extension used by colleges and universities. Small print on the offer pages may provide other ways of validating your identity if you lack the email address or you attend a technical college.

For example, my godchild is a freshman at a major state university. She wanted to get a Macbook and my husband and I agreed to contribute towards this purchase to celebrate her milestone of entering college. I have a few employee discount programs at work and checked pricing out through them. Along the way, I became aware of the student pricing and the promotions offered to students at the Apple Store (retail and online). Her new laptop was significantly cheaper at the Apple Store and she got an Ipod Touch and printer included in the deal for free. Of course I couldn't make the purchase for her (lacking an .edu email address) so she had to go pick it out on her own but such terrific offers made it much more affordable to set her up in style.

Apple also offers discounted pricing to the student market for their operating system upgrades. The new "Snow Leopard" OS has an educational price of $29.99. (Actually it seems to be the same for the general public as well). Then Microsoft's Windows 7 upgrade was announced with a student discounted price of $29.99 (for a limited time). Some tech industry watchers believe the Windows 7 student pricing is aimed at preventing OS switching among students.

Not to be left out, Symantec also offers educational and student discounts. Most student stores offer our products at lower prices than available to the general public. You can also find promotions online at our Symantec Store.

(Note: many of the links in this article are to time limited offers so if you are interested, I suggest you sign up quickly.)

[#2]

As a student, I am naturally delighted to read the above - we can get Symantec products at student discounts over here in Switzerland, too (on online websites affiliated with the university's IT department). Nice to know that Symantec thinks of us book-ridden individuals lurking in dusty libraries... :-)

[#3]

I am also a student and just purchased windows 7 at the discount rate.  TY for the tip =-)

I was wondering however, when I upgrade from windows vista home premium to windows 7 professional it will require me to re-install all my programs, including my norton 360.  if i were to reinstall my norton 360, does that count against one of my 3 total home installations? i only have it installed on my laptop right now, and will be purchasing a desk top later in the semester.

[#4]

Ngluke2, no your reinstall won't count against you. But if you ever have any troubles, just contact the nice folks on our customer service lines and they can assist you. Or write to me! marian@norton.com