You can no longer scam Apple for its educational discounts

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Apple is introducing a new verification step in the US to ensure that its educational discounts actually go to, well, educators and students. Now you will have to verify your education credentials through Unidays, a third-party verification service.

That brings Apple’s educational discount in the US more in line with how it works in other countries. The Apple stores in UK and India already use Unidays to verify entitlement to the educational pricing. The US site was more of an honor system and didn’t even require a .edu email address.

Apple has also changed the language for who can get the discount. Gone is the “Homeschool teachers” option, and the option for parents of “current and newly accepted college students.”

Now only active students, teachers, or staff members at US educational institutions can get the discount. Seems like a weird time to make this change, when the rise in virtual schooling due to the pandemic has turned most parents into homeschool teachers of some description or another.

There are also new purchase limits, which I can’t really disagree with. Now you can only order one desktop, one Mac mini, one notebook, two iPads, and two accessories using the 10% discount through Education Pricing per year. That’s way more Apple devices than any one person can really use though, so I can see Apple’s point here.

All this change in how Apple handles educational discounts really only changes is how complicated the process is. You can often find Apple products on Amazon cheaper than the Apple Store, with no limitations on accessories. Your college or university might also have its own on-campus Apple Store, which has the discounts built into the pricing already.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.