University jumps on even bigger bandwagon: free iPhones and MacBooks to students

Oklahoma Christian University? Sure as hell (woops) haven't heard of it either, but they must be the Cal to Abilene Christian University's Stanford (or sub your fav rivalry here) as they seem ready to pony up the cash necessary to fund the next free-gear-to-students publicity stunt. This time the offering is not only an iPod touch or iPhone, but a new MacBook as well -- and to sweeten the deal, current students can trade their machines in for a new one. Your tuition (and tithing) dollars hard at work, OCU parents, students, and alumni.

[Frederik @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:13AM]

How about Purdue and Indiana or Purdue and Notre Dame? Go Boilermakers!

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:35AM]

or northwestern Chicago. Then I'll be happy

[Frederik @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:44AM]

That should work too. One is a Wildcat and the other is a Phoenix. There should be lots of claws involved. Arrgh!!! Strange you didn't mention the Cubs and White Sox.

[fred @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:01AM]

How about lowering tuition.

I assume you fankids know that there is no such thing as a free anything?

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:42AM]

I laready know something free can't really be free. You probably have to do some stupid and humiliating ritual with the seniors!:P

[Kinger @ Mar 2nd 2008 12:20PM]

Boiler up!

[buu700 @ Mar 2nd 2008 5:22PM]

@CUBSWILLWIN

"I laready know something free can't really be free."

Have you not heard of Linux?

[Justin Schoolmaster @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:19AM]

What the heck is "Bootpicker" on the Technology page? Why would Bootcamp not be okay to say - or is it a simple typo?

[steve @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:24AM]

What a waste of money, a $500 vista machine can run office 2007 just fine, for 1/3 of the cost. And an iphone is not eduational imho

[Ignacio @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:53AM]

"What a waste of money, a $500 vista machine can ..."

Yes, a machine with "Vista Home Basic Edition" (crap), a Celeron processor (crap) and a 28W battery ("up to" 2 hours, lol)

[Abuzar @ Mar 2nd 2008 10:04AM]

Yeah well Macbooks are just overpriced crap. Honestly, as a college student you don't need expensive computers. Most of the people I know that are in college have a cheap laptop for most of their work and some of them tend to have a powerful desktop that they use for gaming and other purposes.

[Josh @ Mar 2nd 2008 10:08AM]

steve...these are college students. Why give them vista instead of mac? I once bought a vista laptop and returned it the next day. MS assumes the user is a retard, not smart enough to install safe programs, not smart enough to use cmd prompt, doesn't have an internet connection and tries to sell you aol...I could go on. Vista is crap, I'm saving for a mac, and at home that is all I will use. This college is making a good choice to give macs vs. pc's with vista. Although, it is expensive for each student to get a mac and an iphone. Tuition and alumni are paying for this.

[Stephen Wilson @ Mar 2nd 2008 10:59AM]

@Josh
If you smart enough to figure out how to turn off the security prompts, put command prompt back in the start menu and... use the internet? then you obviously shouldn't be talking like you know anything about computers. did you just not get a good vibe from the colors of the package or something?

[Stephen Wilson @ Mar 2nd 2008 11:02AM]

*aren't smart enough

in was bad to have a typo in this comment. damn it. i blame it on vista...or something like that

[ben @ Mar 2nd 2008 11:10AM]

When my friend was in his ENGL150 class, he was paired up with a girl to do an interview and paper assignment. Somewhere in the process, the question came up of whether you use a Mac or PC. The girl said to him, in her airhead voice, that she was the first in her family to switch over to Mac, and that she was really proud of herself, because in her opinion--Apple had "better technology". To someone that knows, essentially, a Mac is just a PC with an OS for mouth-breathers, having essentially the same internal components, this is pretty funny.

Apple is the Bose of computers. If you don't know what I am talking about--get a Mac, you're their target audience.

[Joe @ Mar 2nd 2008 11:56AM]

The total cost of running a college full of Macs is cheaper when you factor in support costs to keep the students up and running. The first major issue - no more spyware and virii taking down whole network segments. The second issue - you can keep hardware in stock because everybody is running the same brand of machine and you know exactly what it needs. Finally, the iPhone as a smart communications device coupled with a Mac a better and easier experience to deal with. If you are requiring your students to have a smart phone, the iPhone's data + voice plan is cheaper than Blackberry plans of the same type.
Sure you could do a Windows based solution that might be cheaper per student up front, but over four years that price will soar over the Mac solution.
The only reason large businesses will not do this is because the software they have invested in restricts them to the Windows platform. Apple has been in education since its inception.

[ben @ Mar 2nd 2008 12:29PM]

You're kidding yourself.

"no more spyware and virii taking down whole network segments"
This would never happen with even the least bit of network security. Maybe at some high school, but universities usually have professional IT staff.

"The second issue - you can keep hardware in stock because everybody is running the same brand of machine and you know exactly what it needs."
This is pure facepalm. Getting the parts is never the problem when repairing computers, and your campus IT is going to send it off to an Apple repair shop anyways if it's under warranty and is a hardware problem. Also, Apple and PC are pretty much the same minus motherboards, and getting a replacement MOBO from Apple is a hell of a lot more expensive then buying a retail replacement MOBO for a PC.

"Finally, the iPhone as a smart communications device coupled with a Mac a better and easier experience to deal with. If you are requiring your students to have a smart phone, the iPhone's data + voice plan is cheaper than Blackberry plans of the same type."
Thanks for the buzzwords and opinions, now tell me how an iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter, will actually benefit someone's education.

[Michael @ Mar 2nd 2008 12:39PM]

@Josh

Usually that's a fairly safe assumption. Ask ten nerds (aka Engadget readers) what the cmd prompt is, and I'd be willing to guess 8 would know what it is and 5 would know how to use it.

Try asking the average "Joe" or "Jane" on the street, and your numbers would be much lower. The average consumer does not know what the command prompt is, nor how to use it. People want a computer that is easy to use, yet powerful. Other than a glitch with hibernating/sleep (hopefully fixed w/ SP1...we'll see) I've had no problems with my Vista machine that I built myself.

so yeah, flame off dude....not everyone is an expert computer enthusiast as you obviously must be for having read about the cmd prompt in PC World last week.

[Reid @ Mar 2nd 2008 1:24PM]

You're seriously deluding yourself if you don't think for one minute that spyware and viruses are a MASSIVE problem on college campus networks and on student machines.

That is all.

[snitch @ Mar 2nd 2008 1:53PM]

Dude who the heck buys Office 2007!!! have you heard of Google Docs??? does everything as office and its Free

[John B. @ Mar 2nd 2008 3:04PM]

Haha, I'm sorry but the concept of bringing up the command prompt in a PC vs. Mac argument is absolutely ridiculous, no matter what side you're on.

Whatever percentage of Windows users know how to use the command prompt, I'd bet every nickel to my name that the same percentage for Mac users is about a quarter as much.

[ben @ Mar 2nd 2008 5:17PM]

Student machines maybe, campus networks, no. All in all, the virus problem can be solved with software (AVG is free), and user knowledge. It's not like viruses just randomly appear on their own, a user has to make a mistake in choosing what to download, and there has to be a vulnerability (no virus software). I know my school's logon system runs a program on your computer to check for vulnerabilities and will help you download virus software if you don't have it. You're never going to see viruses on university boxes because of software and user restrictions.

[Superprime @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:26AM]

*facepalm* the sorry state of education today

I weep for humanity

[9bit @ Mar 2nd 2008 1:54PM]

There's a number of reasons Harvard and Yale don't do this. This giving away of laptops thing isn't new, and has mostly been done at public universities where the laptop's price is close to that of the tuition. Here, a $1500 laptop isn't very significant compared to a $45,000 tuituion. Anyway, those that pay the whole tuition are rich enough that a laptop won't matter, and for those who don't Yale's now superior financial aid package makes a bigger difference.
Second, Yale and Harvard don't have to resort publicity stunt, and really only compete with each other (plus MIT and Caltech for science people).
Also, Yale and Harvard don't compete with each other that much, as many people only want to go to or only get into one of them; the common accpetance pool isn't huge (and splits ~60-40 towards Harvard).
Finally, I don't know much about Harvard for this one, but here at Yale, most of us are smart enough to use Windows. Sure, there are plenty of liberal arts types who are no better at computers than the genreal population, and some of the use MacOS for reasons that escape me, but most people are on Windows. If i was given a mac book, I would sell it, take a nickel, and buy myself a real computer.

[9bit @ Mar 2nd 2008 1:57PM]

Gah! The reply thing told me I was replying to Mobius_1 (down two comments).

[PSM @ Mar 2nd 2008 7:31PM]

Yale should teach classes on understanding reality, including the fact that not everyone will like the same things you like, and that doesn't mean they're stupid.

[Homeboy @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:31AM]

I'm not impressed and would rather see the money being spent on recruiting more professors and improving the school facilities.

[animeGhost @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:40PM]

it is a private school and is very expensive for the region so i dont think funds are an issue here

[Mobius_1 @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:34AM]

I wonder why Harvard and Yale (there's another rivalry) don't do this

[Frederik @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:49AM]

Stanford and Cal are closer to Cupertino. In the meantime, I would say that any terminologies related to the Ivy League should be kept for analogies to the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[martin @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:38AM]

jesus phone indeed.

[turn_self_off @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:27AM]

ouch, ouch, ouch :D

[martin @ Mar 2nd 2008 1:50PM]

someone had to say it :)

[Liam @ Mar 2nd 2008 10:06PM]

Seen the video of the students when they hear about it? Not of them says 'Praise be the lord' or anything like that, they just make yelps and wooping sounds. None of them seem to be like "So this is why I'm getting into massive debt to study at an awful, awful institution". That's what I would be thinking... can I have the money instead, please?

[Jason Cox @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:45AM]

I love how my country's educational system wastes money like this.

[amidamaruflame @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:55AM]

ah yes... those private colleges are draining the government of your tax dollars.

[BigD145 @ Mar 2nd 2008 2:08PM]

In case you didn't know, they get gov't subsidies. Big ones. They also tend to be at least partially tax-free.

[Liam @ Mar 2nd 2008 10:03PM]

Well, those subsidies are a good thing, as it means more kids go the college, which will help fuel progress and growth in the future. It's nothing like the subsidies we have in the UK, anyway. A three year course costs a bit less othan $20,000, which is obviously nothing given the return most get ut of it in the long run.

[mrsalty @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:49AM]

This is why this country has failed....GREED and insane materialistic attitude. I love my iPhone but we have gone from a society that trains individuals and gives out apprenticeships, to one the makes you pay to survive.

[Phreak511 @ Mar 2nd 2008 1:56PM]

I agree - the U.S. education system has failed. This country has failed. I can't wait until my daughter's application with Taliban U or Iran College is finally processed. Oh wait, she's a woman. Drat. Darn oppression.

Well, there is always China or some South America university....

Nimrod.

[Seung-Hwan @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:53AM]

I love how everyone is making a generalized comment about the US education system when the university in question is likely a mediocre private school.

Get back to me when either a decent public school, or any decent school for that matter, employs the same kind of cheap tactic and I will join your weeps.

[Burke Hamblin @ Mar 2nd 2008 8:55AM]

I attended OC, and seeing as how the tuition (back in the mid-1990s, anyway) was around $11,000 a year, I'm not exactly shocked at "free" stuff like this. Private schools seem more and more dependent on gimmicks to draw in students these days.

[AoMoe @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:03AM]

This seems more of an incentive for students to enroll in Oklahoma Christian University. Which seems very unchristian. Greed, envy, ...

[Chris @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:59AM]

Perhaps they'll use the iProducts to make the students feel guilty and worthless, and when the students return them to absolve their sin, the school has an inventory for the next freshman class.

It's a one-time purchase the school can use for years to come.

[MauMan @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:10AM]

I'm working on the assuption that since it's a private university that income needs to be greater than expenses.

So a private university decides to standardize on a mobile computing/learning program based on apple technology to better meet the needs of the students and faculty. Great. I hope it works out for them. If it doesn't the market will have spoken.

If you don't like it great. Don't go there/don't donate money to them. Attend/support a school that supports Wintel, a hybrid, or no mobile elearning program if that's what you believe in.

[ben @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:16AM]

My cable and internet at my dorm are "free", but that money has to come from somewhere. The "free" technology products that these schools are giving out are the same deal. Personally I like the way my school lets their students make their own decisions on electronics instead of picking something for me, paying for it with my tuition money, and then telling me it's free.

[bartoron @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:19AM]

How about you just let students bring their own laptop and cellphone, instead of charging them money (they may say they're free, but they obviously have to be paid for in one way or another) to get a completely new laptop and phone which they wouldn't even want that much in the first place?

[Raheem @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:19AM]

How much is the average tuition fee in an American University? When I went to university in London I paid £1300 per year, ($2600ish) although I think that's changed to £3000 now ($6000ish).

[dale_nx26 @ Mar 2nd 2008 9:33AM]

it's either tuition is > than fees or fees > tuition. Most colleges have the primary. So tuition can be ~35000 for a good school. Be grateful for not living in USA my friend.

[Annun @ Mar 2nd 2008 10:09AM]

I'm really gratefull to live in Belgium then, we pay around €500 a year.