Laptop Purchase - Student Discount?

[DoubleD_DDS2B]

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Does anybody know if students (dental students) get special pricing on laptops and software? If so, how does this work - do we need student numbers or student ID's? Do Dell and IBM have such deals or do we go through our local school programs or bookstore? I know some schools (like Nova) include a laptop as part of the program but Ohio State (class of 2010 😀 ) does not so I'm on my own it seems....

Thanks in advance!

 

[fightingspirit]

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[DoubleD_DDS2B]

i think you'd get a much better feedback if you took your thread to the dental forum. 🙂

Thanks for the reply - I actually realized that about 2 seconds after I hit the submit button and reposted there. In general though, students do get discounts on hardware/software right?

 

[BallDontLie]

it depends on your school...i dont think you can independently go buy a laptop and say you're a student and get the discount. I'm pretty sure your school has to have a deal with the company (Dell, IBM, etc...), so where you can get a discount will vary depending on where you go to school. For example, Im looking at an IBM tablet for school...Columbia offers a discount at Dell, but I have yet to find one for IBM 👎 ...luckily my undergrad school (UM) offers an IBM discount, so i just gotta get it here before I graduate. Check with your school for the particulars...

 

[INFNITE]

Dell offers $600~700 discounts on laptops all the time. check out notebookreview.com for the discount coupons.

If you're a Mac user, Apple offers something like a 10% educational discount through their website.

 

[tinman831]

If you go to the university book store on most campuses, they will offer very substantial discounts on software. I'm not sure about laptops/computers though. Laptop manufacturers do offer their own discounts for students. 🙂

 

[WhoooaaaBUNDY]

is it 100% necessary that we have a laptop dedicated only to dschool in most/all programs?

 

[INFNITE]

you don't need to use the laptop only for dental school. I mean, alot of schools don't even require laptops (although they suggest the purchase because it's convenient). some schools integrate laptop use into their education, but that doesn't mean you can't use the laptop for other things.

 

[DoubleD_DDS2B]

is it 100% necessary that we have a laptop dedicated only to dschool in most/all programs?

No, not 100% necessary but probably helpful. I don't envision using a laptop to take notes because nothing can replace my scribble, arrows, boxes, circled and double underlined terms (I don't trust those tablet pc's yet until they become more mainstream). To me, having a laptop is about not being wired to my office desk. Currently, I have a super powerful Dell pc (about 3 years old) but I can't stand being stuck in my office and at my desk for another 4 years. I'm looking to purchase a laptop for portability so I can take it anywhere and access lecture power point presentations, surf the web, read e-mail, work with Word, Excel, etc... basically do general computing tasks from anywhere at any time.

Thanks everybody for the replies. I'll have to check with my school resources for details.

 

[DoubleD_DDS2B]

OK, I contacted the IT Director at Ohio State. He sent me to a special site at IBM that contained preconfigured pc's and laptops for OSU students at greatly discounted prices. For those of you who want to purchase pc's/laptops I would suggest checking with your school for similar programs, they don't seem to be highly promoted but they exist and is well worth the quick investigation to save hundreds of dollars on something you are going to purchase otherwise.

 

[astutts]

I know at Colorado a laptop is recquired, but they factor it into your first year's cost. They have chosen to go with mac powerbooks because they have found they have less problems with them. All of the textbooks are on dvd and the first year price for your "books" is $1200. The price for the laptop is listed at ~ $2400 so I'm assuming the school handles the purchase for you. I know other schools do similar things, so I'd recommend checking with the school you'll be attending. This is just how CU works according to the info I've received.