This might be a stupid question, but can I buy my daughter a new laptop through her school? She is going to have several small private scholarships, and I know they will cover her books. I was hoping she could get a new computer as well.
It depends on the school and the details of the scholarship.
Maybe. We looked into this for our first kiddo…but the fact was…we could get the same computer with the same specs for less money NOT from the school…so that is what we did.
It depends on the school, but if it’s a decent size it’s very likely they have a computer center that sells to students.
Some schools will include a warranty or onsite service if you purchase through them as well, although you may be restricted to a pre-built and approved configuration.
Apple usually offers the same educational pricing whether purchased through university stores or the apple education store. You can pick up your computers tax-free in Delaware, New Hampshire, Oregon or Montana, a convenience if you live near one of those states - just select store pickup. Alternately, sometimes the big mail-order vendors offer discounts and don’t collect tax, which may result in a lower overall price. You can buy Applecare through the apple education store separately to maximize your discount.
So, I did a little independent research after posting this. One school she is considering is Tulane. They have a technology store, and the woman said they run it through the student’s university account (by the way, Tulane is very accommodating and helpful financially). She said the perk of getting it from them is that if the student has a problem with the laptop and needs a repair, they will give them a loaner!
Speak with your school. They may allow you to use the outside scholarship for the first time purchase of a computer. One of the benefits of purchasing your computer from the school in our experience was that it came ready to use; all of the school’s stuff email, apps, etc. were already set up. Depending on your child’s major, some schools will also have it set up with the software that they may need to use. This could be beneficial is you and your child are not the most technology savvy people.
If you wait until the summer or before school starts, apple also has incentives (free pair of beats) with the purchase of your computer.
Florida (and several other states) have ‘tax free weekend’ in Aug and you can buy a computer (I think only the first $750) tax free… Apple student discount of about $100 is available at Best Buy.
The bookstore at DD’s school is managed/owned by Barnes and Nobel, so any discounts available at a store are available at the bookstore.
You might check if there is a separate credit for books bought through the student store, a scholarship specifically for books bought only through the store, or if they are just letting you add the books bought through the store onto the student account. If it is a ‘use it or lose it’ book scholarship, you are probably better off getting the books through the store. If they are just letting you charge it to the student account, you’re probably better off getting books in another way and using your scholarship $$ for tuition, room & board.
Many athletic scholarships are for ‘books’ but nothing else, so the athletes buy their books through the bookstore. A few years ago some athletes bought much more with their stipend, and got into trouble with the NCAA. Turns out computers and ipads and iphones and all the other fun stuff the bookstores sell are not ‘books’ under the books scholarship.
No comment on where or how you should get the computer…but I wanted to say great things about checking out if your school offers a tech support and repair sites on campus. My kiddo has had her university’s version of the Geek Squad fix her computer and phone a few times over the last three years, and they’ve been incredibly helpful. (She did not purchase her comp or phone from them) Everything from fixing software issues to replacing a battery, to diagnosing a phone dropping issue (and fixing it!), to replacing a bad charger. Her “tech guys” also offer loaner laptops through the school (so does the library). I think the comprehensive service is something like $25 a year, and a lot of stuff they’ll do for free. If your school has something like this, I highly recommend checking it out.
Some schools offer warranties and free loaners for as long as your S or D are students there. This is sometimes worth paying a little more for the laptop. My S just walks into the store on campus when he has a problem which he has had, They hand him a loaner and call him when his is ready. No having to go off campus to get something fixed. I can’t stress enough to have a plan for what to do if something happens. These students use their computers a lot and they will have issues.
Also look into an automated backup service like Carbonite. My D and I both sleep better knowing that if anything happens to her laptop the night before a paper is due, she can just get on any web browser anywhere and print it off (or email it) from the backup.
Oh, forgot to mention D’s laptop is also insured. Now it’s covered under her renter’s policy since she’s off-campus, but before we had some sort of specific no-deductible coverage for it under our home policy for a very low price.
Although I would shop around for best deal, I will tell you this. Make sure you buy a backup drive and make sure your D saves all big projects and work on the backup drive on a regular basis. This may be a daily thing depending on how much work she is doing, or a once a week thing. That way if her laptop crashes, she can access her work from any computer.
My kids’ school had the best deal for Macs through their educational discount, sale, trade in, that I ended up buying the whole family’s Macs there. I think I bought 7 Macs over 5 yr period,
Like Sybbie, I order d son’s first laptop thru his school. Having so many programs already installed was a time and. Money- saver.
I paid for my kids to have the computer repair service for a few semesters. They offered this service even if you didn’t buy through the school I am also very low tech so I would have my D email all of her papers to me when she stopped working on them at whatever point they were at. This way, if her computer crashed, I would have the work. I still do this with my youngest son. For very important work, I have them download it to a thumb drive. I don’t trust “the cloud” as I am a relative Luddite.
Wished they brought back the free/discounted Ipod deal they ran for several years during the 00’s. Picked up my first Ipod with that discount when getting Mom the Macbook through the educational discount I had as a grad student. Am due for another Ipod replacement around now and she’s due for a new macbook. .
Sending papers to you via email is no different than the Cloud. In a sense, your email account/server is serving as their cloud.