How Anyone Can Get Apple’s Discount on Education
Are you a teacher? You may have trained your cat to play assembly, but that doesn’t necessarily give you an educational discount on Apple hardware. Or not?
Apple unveiled the new iPad today at a press conference in Chicago on education. It’s not cheaper than the cheapest iPad you could already buy ($ 329), but you can get a slight discount if you order it from school ($ 300) or if you’re eligible to take advantage of Apple’s Education pricing ($ 309 ). And guess what? Every teacher!
As we write this with confidence, Apple is probably working on a way to close the loophole that allows anyone to get a meager educational discount on new Apple hardware. But money is money, right? You save a little money on a burrito, or at least get an extra $ 20 to spend on a new Apple Pencil ($ 89 faculty discount, $ 99 regularly).
How does the discount work?
Apple typically offers educational discounts on its devices to three different categories of people:
- Current and newly admitted college students and their parents
- Faculty and staff, all learning levels
- Home teachers, all grades
Here’s the catch. Apple does not check any of this online. Of course, it would be if he asked for some sort of registration or certification confirmation for home teaching teachers, or a copy of any official documentation they have to submit indicating that they plan on homeschooling their children. But this is not the case. As Paul Miller of The Verge describes:
“To buy discounted Apple Education products, you just go to the Apple Education Pricing store, select your gear (there is a limit on the amount you can buy per year) and check. It’s like buying something else from Apple’s website, only cheaper. If Apple is unsure of your education status, it can send you a confirmation email, but you don’t need to provide any IDs or certifications in advance. “
One note: this trick only works for those who buy groceries in the US. If you are in the UK, for example, you really need to prove your status with UNiDAYS and this is a pretty thorough check to see if you are an active student or educator.
By posing as a teacher, you can save a decent amount of money if you make a more expensive Apple purchase, depending on the product, but you probably shouldn’t pick up your purchases from the Apple store. You never know if an avid Apple retail employee is going to try to verify your student or instructor status. And that’s straight from Apple ‘s terms of use:
“Apple regularly reviews customer purchases at the Apple Store for Education to ensure that all purchase conditions are met. If we find that you have not met all of the terms that apply to your purchase, you authorize Apple to:
- If you placed an order by credit card, charge your credit card for the difference between the amount you paid for the items delivered and the price Apple charged the general public for the same items in the Apple Store in effect on the date you placed your order ; and
- If you did not pay by credit card in any other way to (a) bill you for the difference between the amount you paid for the items delivered and the price Apple charged the general public for the same items in the Apple Store that was payable at fifteen days from the date of the invoice, and (b) if you fail to pay the invoice by the due date, bring legal action against you in a court of competent jurisdiction, with the winning party entitled to attorney fees.
- If Apple does not publicly offer certain products you purchased from the Apple Store for Education, your credit card or bill will be charged for the difference between the amount you paid for the items delivered and the price Apple charged the general public for the nearest equivalent items in the Apple Store as of the date you placed your order. “