Although they don’t all know it, over 72 million people — that’s 1/4 of the United States population doesn’t have to pay full price for popular software titles like Microsoft Office 2007, Adobe Acrobat, Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop and other expensive software packages.

According to the US census of 1999, there were 72 million students in the US and pretty much all of them qualify for academic discounts to the same software that’s sold in BestBuy, OfficeDepot, Amazon, and other mainstream retailers.  15 Million college students pack-up for school each year in the fall, donning their new laptops and MANY of them wasted their money on software that could have been purchased for 80% less.

And if you’re a parent of one of these 15 million kids that are off to college (or hundreds of thousands in grad school), you could get in on these same $69 offers for Windows Vista.

But there’s one thing for sure, if you’re a student, teacher or a parent, there’s a way to get up to 80% off (really) software like the new Microsoft Windows Vista for $69 or Microsoft Office 2007 for $139 that came out today.

A little known fact is that software companies sell “academic” versions of their software heavily discounted through little publicized channels.  They are the same software, but sold at a bargain to students, teachers and basically any home (parents listen up!) to the 72 million kids in school from K-12, college, grade school, etc!  [Yes, that means YOU].

Companies like CampusTech are distributors of these “academic” or “student/teacher” versions of popular software titles like Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, etc.

Who qualifies for academic? Here’s a sample of qualifications for academic discounts:

• Any Student K-12, college, graduate school, full-time or part-time, in the U.S., attending a degree-giving, accredited institution.*
• Any Teacher K-12, college, graduate school, full-time or part-time, in the U.S.
• Any staff member or employee of a K-12, college, or graduate school in the U.S.
• Any school, college, university, school district, or other accredited educational institution

If your school is listed in the National Student Clearinghouse, then you can get instant verification online.  BUT many times, these retailers don’t actually check for verification.  For example, the last version of Office 2003 Student & Teacher version, it was sold at BestBuy, Staples, etc for about $125 without any requirement to show student id, or any proof.   Anyone could walk in and buy it.  Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal as commented that Microsoft was being very leninent on this policy because their aim was to get more “legal,” paid versions of Office out there vs. pirated ones. 

Here’s a sample list of the different flavors of Windows Vista and their academic prices available to all 15 million+ college & grad students out there.  As Walt Mossberg suggested in his review of Vista, *most* people will need the Home Premium version, nothing more.

LESSON OF THE DAY: Next time you’re out to buy some new software, don’t forget to check these academic retailers.  Your wallet will surely be happy when you’ve learned your lesson on getting cheaper software!