Alternative software prices available to students
Kian Hagerman
Mesa Legend
Students use various forms of software in the pursuit of a degree, and many of the tools required to complete assigned work can be prohibitively expensive to those that are already on a tight budget. One software suite used by just about every college student, is Microsoft Office, which includes programs like Word and PowerPoint. Most iterations of Office have cost well over $100 when initially released to the public, and with the latest release of Office 365, the inclusion of a subscription model means that paying for the use of the various programs it contains will now be recurring.
The payment plans available from Microsoft mean that instead of paying the entire cost of the software upfront, the expenditure is deferred over time. One way that MCC students can avoid the added expense of paying for Office 365 is to take advantage of a program through the school that gives students access for free.
Teryl Sands, MCC English instructor said that it was a nice opportunity for students. “I think it’s a great benefit of attending MCC, and it’s a benefit that goes to any Maricopa student,” Sands said. This free version of office can be installed on five different computers of the student’s choice, as well as an additional five tablets. “I think it’s awesome I actually just activated it not too long ago,” said MCC networking major Nicholas McConnell. “It’s pretty cool; it’s free.”
Prior to this, many students that couldn’t afford to, sought an alternative to paying for the Office software.
OpenOffice, is an open source office software that offers much of the same functionality that Microsoft’s Office suite does, and is licensed to user under the Apache License. This license allows users to modify and distribute the software, as well as use it for any possible reason, even commercially without having to pay anything. McConnell added that the school provides other software to students, based on the classes they are in. “If you are taking networking classes on campus they can get you DreamSpark, operating systems and anything else you might need,” McConnell said.
Another group of programs, used primarily by students in creative disciplines are collectively known as Adobe Creative Suite (CS). These programs have had higher prices historically, with the cheapest compilation of Adobe programs for CS6 costing about $1,299. Adobe has now moved towards a subscription system with the latest release, titled Creative Cloud (CC). Some software manufacturers provide those enrolled in school access to their products through an educational license at little to no cost comparatively. Normally the complete suite of CC software costs $79.98 each month, but students get a discounted rate of $19.99 a month.
Photoshop is the flagship of Adobe, and is utilized to create digital art and edit photos, among many other uses. Access to Photoshop, as well as Lightroom through CC is $9.99 each month, although this is included as part of an annual plan.
A different option available to students, is the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), which offers similar utility and is free to use. Many add-ons and scripts are available to customize the experience of GIMP, and the open source nature of the program allows anyone with a knowledge of coding to expand the program.
