Hello everyone.
As most (or even all?) of you know, the online version of our student bookstore has a "technology" link that you can follow to the journeyed.com store, where you can buy cool stuff (software, computers, flash drives, etc) with varying degrees of student (and faculty!) discount. This is very helpful, and a nice resource...except...
Except that in order to get this discount, you have to provide proof that you are in fact a student/faculty member/staff member at the school. In theory, this shouldn't be such a big deal. There are three ways to verify yourself with the e-store folk, and if you have a lot of lead time, they should all work fine.
One of them is an Email Verification. In order to get verified this way, you go get your Academic Verification from the school, turn it into a PDF, and email it to the JourneyEd people.
The second way is a Fax Verification, which is just like the Email way, except (duh) you fax the verfication to them instead of emailing it.
Like I said, if you have plenty of time to go do all of these things, they ought to work just fine.
But what if you don't? What if you are a Communications Design grad student and you need the InDesign suite RIGHT NOW? Well. Then you have a problem.
In order to get the Express Verify Me Now method, you go to a list of participating schools, click the right one, and send your name, SSN, etc. to the JourneyEd people. They look you up in that school's database, and bam! You're good to go.
Alas, the University of Baltimore is not, as far as I can tell, on the magic list. Many other Balto institutions of higher learning are (all the various Hopkins parts, UMB, Coppin State, etc etc) but not us.
We should be on the list, because sometimes we need faster access, or we need to place an order in the middle of the night while we're actually thinking of it. The other methods are acceptable, barely, but they don't offer the convenience that we often need. UB needs to participate.
(A minor programming note: Next week's post will come to you from Banner Elk, North Carolina. Woo hoo!)
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Happy travels, Rafe! And I agree--we should be on that list. I wonder who would be responsible for this ... HR? The Office of Records and Registration? The Offices of Admission? It's so hard to know! I'll send out some feelers ...
Took a quick look at the Express option. Did you notice there's a service charge? Ouch!
Are students aware of the software discounts available through e-academy. This OTS page provides information. I don't want to bore with details. (see bottom)
Using e-academy, students can purchase Adobe and Microsoft products at discounted rates. A verification is required but it's very simple. With e-academy, you have 2 choices:
Option 1: verify using your UB email account -- they send you an email to your UB account and you click the link in the email (this should work even if someone forwards their UB account to another one because you're still initially entering your UB email address)
Option 2: submit proof of your affiliation either by uploading an image or faxing a copy of the acceptable items
We did the email verification with my husband's info just a couple weeks ago. He was verified and registered to purchase software in less than 5 minutes.
It's a beneficial option to students. I compared prices of two Adobe products. Purchasing through e-Academy would save a student $60-70.
If you'd like more info, you can either post here and I'll respond or contact the OTS Call Center.
*Briefly, the discount is arranged through the University System of Maryland. e-Academy is simply the company used to manage the purchasing.
Rafe, just wanted to let you know that I looked into this with the bookstore, and they're following up to get UB on the journeyed.com list, service fee or not. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. And Stace, thanks so much for your input!
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