Microsoft Office and student discount question

Im a student...not a traditional student, but an adult student going to a technical college. How does Microsoft verify that I am a student with the discount for the student version? Does anyone know?

They don't verify it at all. I personally own a copy of the Student and Teacher edition, even though I won't be enrolling for a couple of weeks.

I wouldn't be so naive to think that. You may have gotten lucky though. Usually they'll ask for a student ID.

It's a good thing they didn't, considering I bought it used off Amazon.com, it would have been mighty difficult for me to show them one.

There is no verification.

Office 2004 How To Buy

Qualified Educational-User Qualifications
A. FULL OR PART-TIME STUDENT: You must be an enrolled student at an accredited K–12 educational institution or higher education institution organized and operated exclusively for the purpose of teaching its students.

Click to expand...

(The license also explicitly permits "vocational school, correspondence school, technical school, scientific school, junior college, college, university, or other institution")


In other words, even Kindergarten students technically qualify. Kindergarten students don't usually have student IDs. (Or buy much software, for that matter...) So why would Microsoft do this?

If you ask me, the "Student and Teacher Edition" is just a way of selling Office for a lower cost to almost anyone. Before, Office cost $400+, and few people could afford it. Some pirated it, and some used AppleWorks or something else. Microsoft, known for its business sense, figured it'd be better to sell lots of copies at $150 than a handful at $400. Microsoft would rather people buy the "Full" editon, of course but realistically, it'll take what it can get.

Then Im gonna get it. Just wasnt sure that they didnt have some condition of registering it that you had to prove that you were a student. Like faxing them the ID or something. The thing is, my school doesnt have ID's, only parking stickers. i could send them a picture of my bumper if they want it. LOL

Yeah, you just have to push 'Yes' on a big long form swearing you are a teacher or a student and all that jazz. I own the Student edition and it's exactly the same as the regular version, except it costs like 1/2 the price.

Good luck!

I am a student so I qualify for the discount, but I bought mine off e-bay. Try searching for Office off e-bay, you might get a better deal.

Jup... I needed a legal version of Winslow for my Desktop (compiling stuff for university) and got lucky on ebay, too. 20€ for a nice WinXP-Pro - still o.packaged.

Microsoft Office and Student question

Where can I find the justification tool?