100 Best College Student Discounts – 2024
September 23, 2024
Best College Student Discounts – When I went to college (oh so many years ago), I used to joke that the money we spent on campus didn’t matter. “Monopoly money,” I called our dining hall points. I went to the cafeteria, ordered my buffalo chicken wrap, swiped my student ID, and felt no impact to my personal finances as my “points” slowly dwindled. At the end of the semester, we all used our points to buy stacks of dining hall pizzas that we shared among our dorm floor. We had to use our points! They expired at midnight on the last day of finals!
What was the exchange rate of dining hall points to dollars? What was the relationship between those dollars and the interest rate I would pay on them with my student loans? I had no idea. And if we’re being honest, I had no interest in finding out how to know. I had homework, classes, clubs, friends, football games, and parties to attend to. The math was irrelevant to me.
But that wasn’t the case when I needed to get off campus. Of course, I was squirreling away small sums of money from my summer jobs (deli counter at the grocery store, sales clerk in the swimming pool store) into my rudimentary checking account. I worked as an RA, so I didn’t have a steady cash flow throughout the semester. When we went out for burgers or I wanted to buy a new “going out top,” I had to watch how much money I was spending. I certainly overdrafted my account more than once. I wouldn’t recommend it!
100 Best College Student Discounts – 2024 (Continued)
What did I learn from all of this?
When you’re a college student, you’ve got to be on the lookout for the best deals. Deals about town, deals online, deals on wheels: is there an Uber code you can use? A food truck with a lunch special? Find them!
The convenient thing is that you don’t actually have to work that hard to find the deals. Businesses, stores, and restaurants know that you’re trying to save a few bucks. So, flashing your student ID can save you money. From laptops to essentials to transportation and more, you’ll find that, despite the associated price tag, you can save some money on consumer costs in college.
But who has the best student discounts? And what do you have to do to unlock those deals?
Check out our list of the best student discounts below. We’re hoping these codes and offers will help you save big money in the long run!
Best College Student Discounts – Technology, Laptops, Computers, Tablets, Etc.
Every computer company out there knows that you need a new laptop for college. So, you can find some pretty decent discounts from the big international tech companies.
1) Apple Education Savings
At the start of the academic year, Apple often offers gift cards for new purchases, as well as its tried and true student pricing for the Apple family of devices.
Before the end of September 2024, students can get a $150 gift card, 20% off Apple Care, and more.
The MacBook Air starts at $899 or about $75/month for 12 months with education savings.
The MacBook Pro starts at $1499 or about $125/month for 12 months with education savings.
That’s about $100 savings on the initial cost plus another $150 with the gift card (depending on the details of the offer) and the savings with Apple Care. Not too shabby!
2) HP Education Store
According to the HP Education Store, you don’t need a .edu email address to register for the program. Then, teachers and students can save up to 40% on the latest technology. The 40% doesn’t apply to products already on sale or other promotions, but otherwise, seems like a huge deal.
3) Dell Education Pricing
Dell laptops already run at a fraction of the price of, say, an Apple laptop. But with Dell Education Pricing, students can earn an extra 5% off. It’s worth shopping their sales to see what’s there.
4) Best Buy Back to School Student Hub
Best Buy not only has laptops, but you can get everything to outfit your dorm room (techwise) from this notorious big box store.
Because Best Buy features all kinds of different brands and devices, you’re going to want to check out the prices for what you’re looking for and see if they’re comparable across the different discounts offered by the brands themselves. It might be worth popping into the store, too!
5) Microsoft Essentials for Students and Teachers
Students can get 50% off Microsoft 365 Personal with this discount. That’s just $2.99 per month!
But: do your research first. Many colleges and universities offer Microsoft Office products to their students for free—because you need them to do your work. So, check with your school before you shell out the cash.
6) Samsung Education Offer Program
Verify your email address with Samsung and get yourself up to 30% off Samsung tech products. Not only is 30% a good deal, but as of the writing of this article, there seem to be other deep discounts on different products. The Select Galaxy S24 phone, for example, is offered at $365, down from more than $1,400 with the Education Offer Program. Go shop, girl!
7) Verizon Student Discount
Students can save up to $12/line for cell service and up to $20/month for home internet with Verizon’s student deals.
8) Lenovo Student, Teacher, Parent Deals
Verify your student ID with Lenovo and save 5% on your tech purchases.
9) Logitech
Get 25% off by using your .edu email address.
10) Razer Education Discount
Unlock special deals on laptops, PCs, and more.
11) AT&T
12) US Mobile
Best College Student Discounts – Software
13) You Need a Budget (YNAB)
When I tell you that YNAB helped me survive my grad school stipend years, I am telling you that it helped me thrive. I paid off $4,000 in credit card debt making a teeny tiny grad school stipend using YNAB’s free student software! This is a biased review, your mileage may vary, but let me just say: if you need help keeping track of your finances and spending (or you never learned how to do it), get yourself some YNAB. 10/10, highly recommend.
14) Apple Pro Apps
Spend just $200 and get apps like Final Cut Pro, Motion, Logic Pro, and more. Buyer beware, though: your university might just offer this software for free, especially if you’re a film major or something like that.
15) GitHub
GitHub’s student developer pack is FREE for verified students, and includes professional level software development and coding tools. Git there!
16) SquareSpace
Get 50% off your first year of SquareSpace with their student discount. It’s the perfect amount of time to launch your personal portfolio website, your small business, or whatever else you can dream up. The space is yours!
17) Notion
To call Notion an organizational cult classic is a stretch only in that it is so diffusely popular that it is no longer cult. Use their free version to access a student planner, club organizer, habit tracker, job application organizer, personal website, and more, all in Notion. Free! What are you waiting for?
18) Babbel
Get prepped for your summer European backpacking trip or your study abroad semester in Nepal with Babbel’s student discount. Students save 65% on 3 months of Babbel, which is enough to help gamify your semester of studying for whatever foreign language class. Plus, after three months, you’ll be ready to get into conversations with international students at the next French club meeting. Oo, lala!
19) Ableton Live
Save 50% on a new Ableton Live Intro, Standard, or Suite license.
20) Adobe Creative Cloud
Just $20/month for the Adobe Creative Cloud—a 66% discount.
Best College Student Discounts – More Software
21) Dashlane Premium Password Manager
23) Evernote Organizational System
25) Skillshare
26) Avid
Best College Student Discounts – Anything You Need: Home, Self-Care, Life, Etc.
27) Target Circle Student Deals
Get yourself registered with Target Circle as a college student and get 20% off of one verifying purchase. So, register yourself, make one huge purchase, and cash in on that 20% discount!
28) Amazon Prime Student / Young Adults
The classic deal of all the deals. You already know that you can find just about anything you need on Amazon (and many things you don’t need and also maybe some fakes of popular products, you know how it goes). But with Prime Young Adults, you can get $0 food delivery fees with GrubHub, 10% off flights and hotels, 3 months of free meditations from Calm, and deals on just about every Prime Video and Music service that they offer for the time that you’re in school. Binge until your eyes fall out!
29) Headspace
85% off of the meditation service, just for students.
30) Peloton
$6.99/month for students.
Travel
31) Amtrak Student Savings
Students can get a pass for 15% off Amtrak tickets for the entire time that you’re a student. Go roll around the country!
32) United Young Travelers
People aged 18 to 23 can get 5% off on United airline tickets. Could be worse?
33) StudentUniverse Discounted Travel
StudentUniverse is an aggregator of travel deals for students. They offer search options for flights, hotels, and cars. It could be worth adding StudentUniverse to your search options when you are looking for your next flight home.
More Travel Discounts:
34) GM College Appreciation Program
35) Megabus
37) Penske
38) Metro Bike Share Los Angeles
39) Zipcar
Best College Student Discounts – Entertainment
40) AMC Student Discounts
Scroll on the link above to find the Student Discount option, and then search with your location to find theaters that will give you a deal.
41) Regal Cinemas Student Discounts
Regal Cinemas has theaters nationwide that offer discounts with the presence of your student ID.
42) Cinemark Student Discount
Search with your zipcode to find out if there’s a Cinemark cinema with a discount near you.
43) Hulu Streaming
Streaming for $2/month as long as you’re a student.
44) YouTube Premium Student
Typically, YouTube Premium is $15/month. After a free, one-month trial, students can pay just $8/month for the service.
45) Peacock TV
Stream your NBC favorites for just $2/month for one year with your student ID before being up-charged to the full $8 after 12 months. Fruit blindness!
Spotify (46), Tidal, (47), and Apple (48)Music Streaming Services offer discounts, as well as the popular online radio service, Pandora (49). Get into more independent artists with the SoundCloud student discount (50) too!
After a month (or three) of a free trial, get 50% off of these popular music streaming services for the life of your college career. Hand me the aux cord, baby!
Local theaters, festivals, and music venues often offer student discounts
Before you buy a ticket for a concert or play, ask at the box office if the venue offers student discounts. Cultural programming centers often want to incentivize young people to come and experience their events, so they frequently offer great deals for young people and anyone with a student ID. You should absolutely ask before you buy!
Entertainment Discounts:
51) Free student admission at the MoMA
52) Free student admission at the Andy Warhol Museum
53) LACMA student discount/free admission for LA County residents Monday–Friday after 3 PM
54) Art Institute of Chicago participating university free admission
55) Broadway Student Rush Tickets
56) Carnegie Hall
57) Lincoln Center
58) The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
60) The Smithsonian Museums in Washington, D.C. are free for everyone!
Best College Student Discounts – Newspapers and Magazines
61) The Economist
63) The Atlantic
64) Bloomberg
67) Trails Magazine
Best College Student Discounts – Food and Dining
68) Blue Apron
69) DoorDash
70) EveryPlate
71) HelloFresh
72) Home Chef
73) Chick-fil-A
74) Taco Bell
Best College Student Discounts – Insurance
75) AllState
78) Geico
79) Nationwide
80) Progressive
81) State Farm
Best College Student Discounts – Retail Therapy
82) 1-800 Contacts
83) Aeropostale
84) Aerie
85) Champion
86) Converse
87) Crocs
88) J.Crew
89) Kate Spade
90) Levi’s
91) Madewell
92) New Balance
93) Nike
94) Purple
95) Redbubble
96) Reebok
97) Stanley
98) The North Face
99) Vera Bradley
100) Vineyard Vines
Best Student Discounts to Use in College – Additional Resources
