Apple's US Education Store Now Requires Institution Verification to Buy Discounted Products

Apple is now requiring that customers in the United States verify that they're active students, teachers, or staff members at an educational institution in order to access education discounts on products.

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Previously, little verification was needed for customers to purchase products through Apple's education store in the United States. Apple's education stores offer models of the iPad and Mac at reduced price points, making them more affordable to students, teachers, and staff who will use them for education purposes.

As the store was accessible to all, some customers may have used it even if they weren't an education customer, which likely led Apple to implement tighter rules for its U.S. store.

As spotted on Reddit, Apple in the United States now requires that current students, teachers, and staff members verify their eligibility for education discounts through UNiDAYS. UNiDAYS is a website specialized in providing education customers with discounts for products and services by confirming their enrollment in an educational institution.

Apple had previously implemented the same approach to its education store in other countries, such as India and the United Kingdom. At the time of writing, Apple's Canadian education store remains open, with customers able to purchase discounted products without the need to verify eligibility through UNiDAYS.

Top Rated Comments

Solomani Avatar
18 months ago
"Apple is now making it more difficult for customers in the United States to access its education discounts..."


Poor choice of words. Really, Apple is making things more difficult? How about simply stating that Apple is doing what it should have been doing in the first place: vetting and qualifying people who are qualified to get an Educator/Student discount?

Apple's only fault here is that they made it too easy for too long.

The wording from this MR article implies that Apple is WRONG (aka the bad guy) for making this change.... in reality this change is something that is making things right.
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Denzo Avatar
18 months ago
That's why I married a teacher
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Basic75 Avatar
18 months ago
Well, no wonder with how many people were bragging online about exploiting the lack of verification.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BreakYurAnkles Avatar
18 months ago

I can’t tell you how many times I would read online that people would just buy through the education store for the discount despite not being involved in education, so this seems reasonable to me.
my justification has always been that I have nieces and nephews that are in elementary k-12.

I often educate them on how to get discounts.

So the purchase is for their education.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dwalls90 Avatar
18 months ago
I can’t tell you how many times I would read online that people would just buy through the education store for the discount despite not being involved in education, so this seems reasonable to me.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zchrykng Avatar
18 months ago
Wonder how they are going to handle homeschoolers or if we are going to get the short end of the stick like always.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)