Going to college is expensive. Between tuition, textbooks, and beer, there isn’t always a lot of wiggle room in the budget. Tack on the skyrocketing cost of living, and you might be wondering just how you’re supposed to manage your money. One way to stretch those dollars further is by taking advantage of student discounts. A valid .edu email address can help you save on plenty of necessities, with a little left over for binge-watching on Netflix or cheap food delivery. We’ve rounded up our favorite student discounts below.
How to Qualify for .Edu Discounts
In the good old days, it was easy to cheat your way into student discounts. You could photoshop a student ID or snag a fake email address for $5 after a Google search. But thanks to third-party verification services, it’s now almost impossible (and in some cases, illegal) to obtain and use a fake qualifying email. We don’t advise attempting to get a student email address if you aren’t actually a student. But some educational discounts can also be used by teachers, parents of students, or alumni. Sometimes getting a student discount is as simple as confirming a code sent from the retailer to the email in question. Other times they rely on third-party services like Unidays to verify your student status after you upload a photo of your school ID. Your school may also have its own portal to verify your account. Once verified, you can take advantage of student discounts either on the Unidays website or by logging in to your Unidays account when prompted at stores that use it as an authentication method. ID Me, Sheer ID, and Student Beans are other services that act as a verification method and shopping portal.
Tech Deals
Whether you need headphones, a laptop, or a USB-C dongle, there are probably a few gadgets on your school shopping list. The stores below offer student discounts on all of the gadgets and gizmos you could need. Check out our buying guides, like the Best Dorm Gear, Best Laptops, and Best Keyboards, for WIRED-tested recommendations.
Apple Store
The Apple education discount generally offers about 10 percent off to students, their parents, and teachers. Usually, deals are sweetened around autumn, with offers like free AirPods with the purchase of a MacBook, or a free Apple Pencil with the purchase of an iPad. You can usually save on services like AppleCare+ too. Student deals are available to students and parents of students. Best Buy changes its exclusive offerings pretty frequently, and extra deals are usually available, like discounted video games, microwaves, and PC peripherals. The Dell University store offers various discounts to those with .edu email addresses. Some Dell University coupon codes can be stacked with other deals at Dell to save even more. Most stores don’t let you stack coupons, which makes these deals a bit more enticing. Sign up for HP education discounts by verifying your .edu email address. HP says eligible shoppers may be able to save up to 40 percent off on select products. Lenovo switches up its discounts on a regular basis, but students and teachers can typically get around 10 percent off. In the past, Lenovo has also offered bonuses, like free Uber vouchers for spending a certain amount. Accounts are free and verified via ID Me. Snag 25 percent off at Logitech by validating your email via Unidays. Microsoft offers up to 10 percent off a variety of products, including Surface devices and accessories. Parents, students, and faculty are eligible. Samsung’s program is for students, parents, and educators, who get up to 30 percent off laptops, tablets, phones (even folding phones!), and other gadgets. Additional deals include discounted accessories with the purchase of select devices and a variety of sales on bundles. Razer’s education deals vary, but there’s a selection of discounted laptops. Eligible shoppers can also save 15 percent on peripherals and 5 percent on Razer gaming chairs. Unlimited plans are discounted by as much as $25 per month for college students, and you can also save on home internet through Verizon. As is typical with cell phone service providers, terms and conditions apply, but this is worth looking into if you’re a Verizon customer (or considering making a switch). College students can get 20 percent off an entire qualifying shopping trip at Target. There are some exclusions, and you’ll need to join the free Target Circle program to redeem the offer.
Online Service Deals
The services you use every day might be even cheaper, thanks to that sweet, sweet institution inbox. Signing up for the first time? Our Best Live TV Streaming Services and Best Music Streaming Services guides can help you decide. Your college or university may also offer their own private discounts. Insurance providers sometimes offer student benefits too.
Spotify Premium
Spotify Premium Student costs $6 per month, which is a 50 percent discount. It also includes the version of Hulu with commercials. If you love your TV, this is one of the best student discounts around, especially if you’re already paying $6 per month for Hulu. Usually, Apple Music costs $11 per month. Students pay $6. The Apple Music Student subscription also includes Apple TV+. Your eligibility will be verified via Unidays. Students can get 50 percent off various Tidal premium music streaming memberships. The offer is available to high schoolers as well, not just folks enrolled in higher education. Students can get a free six-month trial of Amazon Prime Student (usually that’s limited to one month). After the trial ends, students will be charged $7.49 per month, rather than the typical $15 price. Prime Student includes a few special perks, like free Grubhub Student+ access and discounted meditation app memberships. Students can get the ad-supported Hulu plan for $2 per month instead of the usual $8. This is the best option if you want access to Hulu but not Spotify. Typically, YouTube Premium costs $14 per month, but the cost drops to $8 for students after a free one-month trial. The membership includes access to both ad-free YouTube videos and ad-free YouTube Music. Peacock Premium usually costs $6 per month, but students can get it for $2 per month for a year.
Software and Class Deals
Whether you need to subscribe to an online service for class or just want a tool like Adobe Photoshop, these discounts can help you save.
You Need a Budget
Several of our Gear team members have used this service, which is enthusiastically recommended on nearly every finance forum on the internet. Most of us find it pretty difficult to use, but if you don’t mind a steep learning curve, it’s worth a shot. (I found this video tutorial helpful.) Note that this deal is limited to college students. Eligible students, parents, and educators get 50 percent off Ableton Live or can apply the same percentage off to Live bundled with Push. Ableton Live is our favorite DAW for DJs and live performers. This software is especially enticing for music creators, though if you’ve been considering uploading some fun projects to SoundCloud, it might be worth your while too. You don’t need to be a music major to take advantage of the offer. Check out our guide to learning music online for more tips. Adobe Creative Cloud includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro, Lightroom, and more. You also get 100 gigabytes of cloud storage. It’s usually $55 a month. Students and educators can get it for $20 monthly. After a year, the $20 price is raised to $30, but it’s still a good discount if you can’t access needed Adobe apps another way. This bundle includes licenses for Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Motion, and more. It’s tailored to video and music creators and costs $200. Considering that Final Cut Pro sells for $300 on its own, this bundle is a worthwhile purchase if you plan on buying any of these software licenses individually. This is a great deal on one of the best password managers. This freebie from GitHub contains free and discounted apps, services, software downloads, and more developer tools. From a free year-long domain on Namecheap to free courses on Educative and waived Stripe transaction fees, plus access to GitHub Pro, there are over 100 options to choose from. You don’t need to use them all, but you do need to be an enrolled student. Verified through Student Beans, this deal gets you half off the normal cost of an annual individual website plan or a website platform plan. I haven’t used Ulysses yet, but several industry colleagues swear by the Apple-device-exclusive writing software. It’s known for limiting distractions and helping with edits—two tools that should come in handy for students. It typically costs $40 per year. The subscription ends automatically, so you don’t need to remind yourself to cancel it, but you can renew it for as long as you remain a student. Evernote is one of the long-standing note-taking apps. A valid .edu email address gets you 40 percent off a one-year Evernote Professional membership. Professional is the most robust Evernote plan, and it includes special perks like Boolean search, calendar connections, and more. Notion is similar to Evernote and Google Keep. It’s handy for everything from making to-do lists to building outlines and other documents. This plan is free for students and educators. It’ll stay free as long as you have access to a university-associated email address. Students and educators can use a valid .edu email address to get free access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Teams. There are free alternatives to Microsoft Office products, but if you insist on writing essays in Word, this is worth checking out. Prezi offers a slate of tools used to perfect digital presentations. It can be integrated with Zoom or Google Meet. The service has two educational premium plans for students and educators that cost $4 or $8 per month (usually $7 or $19 per month, respectively). You need a valid .edu email address for this one. If funds are especially tight, you can also apply to get a free one-year membership. SkillShare offers classes on graphic design, journalism, photography, business marketing, and much more. This is $22 off the usual cost of a three-month Babbel subscription. Babbel is our favorite language-learning app.
Deals on Clothing, Magazines, Food, and More
If you need some retail therapy (or you just want to upgrade your dorm room on the cheap), plenty of non-tech stores offer student discounts. Some standouts are highlighted below.
Discounts on Magazine and Newspaper Subscriptions
We’re biased, but a year of unlimited digital access to WIRED costs $5 per year for students and educators. Students can also save on subscriptions to The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more. If there’s a magazine or newspaper that you frequently read, it’s likely that you can get a discount when you subscribe. Bring your student ID to the box office to get cheaper prices. Discounts vary by location, so check with your local theater for more details. Unidays is the best way to find fashion retailers that have student discounts. A few athletic and outdoor stores are also listed, so even if you don’t need interview clothes for a fancy grown-up job, this could be a good way to save on sporting goods and other gear for your extracurricular activities. Amtrak offers a national discount to students between 17 and 24 years old. This company makes some of our favorite paper planners. Your student status will be verified through ID Me at checkout. DashPass usually costs $10 per month. Students can get it for half the normal cost. DashPass gets you free delivery on most orders over $12, plus special discounts and promotions. You can also get credits back on DoorDash Pickup orders.
