Missouri School of Journalism's iPhone "requirement" a clever interpretation of financial aid rules

Here's an interesting new mandate for all of Missouri School of Journalism's incoming freshman: equip themselves with iPhones and iPod touches. Actually, let's go ahead and clarify what "mandate" means here, as associate dean Brian Brooks has stated that no one will a be punished for not buying / owning one. While noting the audio recording and playback capabilities were motivation for this decision, he explains the reason it's classified as a requirement is because it lets students include it in their financial need estimate -- wholly beneficial when you're figuring out scholarships and loans. It doens't look like there'll be any direct discounts from U of M, however, unlike some other schools with similar initiatives. It's a clever loophole, to be sure, but we'd wager there's more than a few undergraduates who are none too pleased at the Apple favoritism, and to be honest, we love nothing more right now than imagining a large group of S60 and Zune supporters gathering in a field for frisbee, picnic, and lots of protesting.

[Via Macworld]

[Pimpin Curly @ May 9th 2009 10:09AM]

The Missouri School Of Douchism

[bondsbw @ May 9th 2009 10:38AM]

What part of "no one will a be punished for not buying / owning one" is unclear? If you want something else, get that instead.

It's not much different from requiring students to purchase Microsoft Office, except that Office alternatives may have unacceptable incompatibility. Or you could compare it to requiring a special university-only edition textbook, where you can't use an alternative or sell it on eBay.

I think this is much more fair than most college "requirements".

[ben @ May 9th 2009 12:37PM]

I've had textbooks used for a single class more expensive than the $229 iPod touch... and this is something they'll use for a number of classes. Not a big deal.

[Thomas @ May 9th 2009 12:59PM]

Futhermore, this requirement will help their student to become good journalist... for Apple related magazines and websites.
Maybe it's not what Pullizter expect, but it's a good way to find a job later. Apple fanboy journalist are best candidate for a job at News Corp as they are enough narrow-minded.
Can't criticize this when Open Source fanboy are doomed and MS fanboy are stucked with Microsoft Voice Command not working on their WM 6.1 OS phone. :)

The alternate reason might be the fact that until iPhone 3.0, user weren't able to copy/paste. Missouri Staff was thinking it will a good thing when you see copy/paste everywhere in the press. Too bad, now iPhone users can copy/paste.

[sam @ May 9th 2009 1:35PM]

wow. It appears that neither the writer of the article nor any of the
commenters understand Financial Aid. All this does is allow the school
to tack $200 onto your loan and scholarship ELIGIBILITY. there is no
requirement that it be spent on iphones (which i would never buy, by
the way. overpriced crap). Theres no requirement that you even take
the loan!

the key word here is ELIGIBILITY! you don't even have to take the
loan! as a current student, i know this very very well!

here's how it works: to create your loan package, they calculate your
eligibility: tuition + "living expenses" (estimate) + books and
supplies (estimate) + transportation (estimate) + personal (estimate)
[this comes directly from my loan package, which is in my hand]. Then
they figure out how much you will be able to contribute yourself
(based on your taxes). that number is your eligibility. then they
allow you to take out loans based on that number (from private banks,
remember, all they do is control the interest rates on some of those
loans, and guarantee some part of the loan to the lender). THE
NUMBERS THEY GIVE ARE ESTIMATES OF WHAT THEY THINK YOU MIGHT NEED!
NOT WHAT YOU MUST SPEND!

My loan package includes @$3k for transportation for the next year.
that doesn't mean i get to stop coming to school when my gas runs
out!!! It also doesn't mean that if i take the loan, i promise to
spend $3k on transportation!!! think about it folks!

[iphonerulez @ May 9th 2009 3:44PM]

Why is this a big deal? I thought everyone that had any brains owned an iPhone or iPod Touch. Should they have been asked to buy a Zune instead? I would think there'd be some schools that would have a requirement to own a Windows PC or BlackBerry. Why is this such a crime to ask people to own an Apple mobile device. It's not like it's just going to be used just for school. There's lots of other uses for it.

Is it so unusual for a school to have such requirements? One school asking for students to have an Apple product isn't much of a reason for Apple fanboys to jump for joy. It's not like it's going to push iPhone sales past BlackBerry sales or boost Apple's share price. This requirement is basically a non-issue.

[BananaBoat @ May 9th 2009 6:52PM]

If I could add an Iphone to financial aid...I wonder if I could add the data plan as well....


Interesting.......

[Bobsley @ May 9th 2009 7:03PM]

Brains? I am really sorry but I live in Japan. My free phone is better and cheesier than your Iphone.

I love cheese.

[neofolklore @ May 9th 2009 8:05PM]

Can I low rank the whole article?

[Derek Guenther @ May 10th 2009 6:17PM]

Also, this is really handy for people who have a full tuition scholarship and have room/board covered by other scholarships. Like sam said, a certain dollar amount is allotted as an estimate for how much will be spent on transportation/personal items. If your scholarships cover tuition as well as room and board, you basically get money back up from any remaining scholarships up to the amount of this estimate. For example, I'm getting full tuition + room/board scholarship, plus a few other scholarships, so I'll be getting $600 back once college starts. I think the point of this is to expand the transportation/personal items estimate, not necessarily pimp the iPod/iPhone.

[Fu @ May 9th 2009 10:10AM]

Still a clever idea by Missouri School of Journalism.

And those who aren't too happy about the "requirement", may have a few extra hundred dollars in their pockets, courtesy of eBay and Craigslist...

[wickedpheonix @ May 9th 2009 10:53AM]

What would be even more clever is, if you get a full ride there, going to the financial aid office with an argument of look, the iPhone requires a contract, and you guys require the iPhone, so if you're going to pay for the iPhone then you should pay my cell phone bill every month too.

[Samboini @ May 9th 2009 11:05AM]

Apart from you can get them on pay as you go...

[Sisyphus @ May 9th 2009 11:16AM]

"Still a clever idea by Missouri School of Journalism."

I suppose its clever so far as fraud is concerned.

[Rik Feilden @ May 9th 2009 5:39PM]

How on earth is taking out a loan so that you can sell something cheaper second hand a good thing?

[illuminar @ May 9th 2009 10:10AM]

Doesn't Mizzou also require all journalism students to use MacBooks?

[zldaphreek @ May 9th 2009 11:23AM]

yes they do. but every professor in the j-school has them too and so do many other departments on campus

[shmeremy @ May 10th 2009 2:25AM]

The school in general requires all students to have a laptop. Then each school or college recommends either a PC or Mac. The Business school recommends a PC, J School a Mac, etc. But it's not requirement. I know of a couple of J School kids with PCs. I'm graduating from the J School in a week so I can tell why this really is happening. Their convergence Journalism program is starting to tinker in iPhone apps to access news and info. They just held an iPhone app contest with the winner getting a trip to the developers conference. With the popularity of the iPhone, Blackberrys, etc, they're just wanting students to up to date with designing and using the newest tools

[Rob Conway @ May 9th 2009 10:11AM]

that makes more sense! i saw this on my local news last night and didn't have a clue as to why they would do that, but the whole financial aid thing clears it up.

[sockatume @ May 9th 2009 10:15AM]

Sounds to me like they "require" iPhones or iPod Touches, meaning that students can get money for those on their scholarship or whatever. Yet because they don't enforce that, there's nothing to stop the student turning around and spending that money on a $50 Nokia and a microcasette recorder.

[Dan Siercks @ May 9th 2009 10:18AM]

This isn't Mizzou's idea, Apple is using the "requirement" pitch all across higher ed.

[darkmax @ May 9th 2009 10:19AM]

This is what happens when crazy fanbois are sitting high and mighty on the board of directors or such.

[Andrew @ May 9th 2009 12:18PM]

Yes, and at 99% of schools they require that you run Internet Explorer to access their services. Windows just happens to be a "requirement" at all the other schools where Microsoft-fanbois are "high and mighty".

[Brian Flowers @ May 9th 2009 2:39PM]

Andrew: What schools would those be? I will admit my school (Penn State) has some trouble with Chrome and whatever the Sidekick browser is, but everything works just fine on Firefox or Safari (including the iPod Touch), Opera, Epiphany, Konqueror, and whatever other browser I end up using. And I attended IUP while in high school, and all their stuff worked with any browser. And in doing applications I never had any trouble with the other schools I applied to.

Hell, I run Linux, and haven't had to touch Windows a single time while at school. They officially support Linux. They have Linux software for download right alongside the windows stuff. They have Linux instructions on their ITS site. I have never even heard of a school *requiring* IE or Windows. What school did you go to?

[TareX @ May 9th 2009 10:26AM]

iPhone looks its worst in this photo... thick rim around the screen.

[Nik @ May 9th 2009 10:37AM]

It's a first gen Touch, not an iPhone

[Calpa @ May 9th 2009 10:38AM]

..probably because it's not an iPhone, but an iPod

[Jay Evans @ May 9th 2009 10:35AM]

Remember this the next time you hear news stories about the staggering "increasing cost" of higher education and the debt burden it's placing on students.

[NoAndThen @ May 9th 2009 11:41AM]

Yep, next time I'm pissed about the "for profit" system of most higher education, I will remember your irrelevant comment.

Be reasonable; this has NOTHING to do with higher costs, nm the fact that it's not actually required. I spend more per semester on books usually than I would with an iPhone on AT&T.

[bjsguess @ May 9th 2009 12:52PM]

I must have missed the part where you get free text books if you have an iPhone or Touch?

How does the cost of textbook relate one bit to this article? By landing a Touch or iPhone you are NOT saving any money.

[Kwikit @ May 9th 2009 10:36AM]

Requiring a brand or model is unnecessary, if the real intent was to make the purchase eligible for financial aid. They could have just required an audio recording and playback device on a cellphone.


Some schools require laptops... windows laptops, to run certain software required by the program, but the suggested models are based on performance and capability.

I'm not convinced that the iPhone / Touch are any more capable at audio recording / playback than any other generic device.

[bondsbw @ May 9th 2009 10:47AM]

They will probably train teachers how to use the iPhone and Touch. The Apple "requirement" is probably a way to keep from training teachers on each and every single device that could show up.

Brand favoritism in the college setting is hardly new. Welcome to the world of IBM and Apple in the 90s, when everything was going the way of Microsoft.

[Perspective @ May 9th 2009 10:48AM]

They were going to "require" a Blackberry, but journalism students don't need business e-mail, so there really was no point. I did hear that a class in the computer science department titled "Frustrating GUI design and implementation on a derivative hardware device" requires the Storm, but for the life of me I can't imagine why. Oh, wait, that's right. The Storm sucks. It all makes sense now.

[Eric Foor @ May 9th 2009 10:54AM]

Tell them that netbooks are required! Yeah, that might work.

But for the iPhones, maybe they can offer custom skins for free, to entice people to do it.

[san_terre @ May 9th 2009 10:55AM]

They are only doing this, because Gary Foresee didn't get the iPhone when he was CEO at Sprint. Now he wised up and decided to get them in the hands of people now (which is after the fact). Probably screw this deal up also.

[roach @ May 9th 2009 10:58AM]

And school requires student to start referring MS as M$.

[Ron @ May 9th 2009 10:59AM]

This is no different than certain classes requiring certain calculators. Sure you can buy a different calculator but you won't get any help or support from most professors.

Schools like standardized things, they want everyone to be on the same page. In this case, the requirement is not enforced so I don't see any issues. It's more like a suggestion.

[thisisit @ May 9th 2009 11:03AM]

IPHONESUX!!!
WINMO7FTW!!!

[Emmet @ May 9th 2009 12:02PM]

...that's what she said.

[Me4u2 @ May 9th 2009 2:05PM]

She's a Michael Jackson fan.

MJ ftw

[Me4u2 @ May 9th 2009 2:12PM]

She's a Michael Jackson fan.

MJ ftw

[Mike @ May 9th 2009 11:15AM]

why dont they just give it out for free? not like Missouri is any good college. that would attract more students.

"hey, come to Missouri, and get a free iphone!"

[iKurt 5D @ May 9th 2009 12:05PM]

becuz Windows fanbois don't deserve iPhones, the best smartphones on the planet.

[CosmicSquirt @ May 9th 2009 12:43PM]

The University of Missouri has one of the most respected J-schools. People already come from all over to study journalism.

[lawlersauce @ May 9th 2009 1:34PM]

lol Missouri not a good school? Outta your head. It's J-School was the first in the country and has continued to be the best since it opened.

I'm attending Mizzou :)

[Kwikit @ May 9th 2009 10:14PM]

http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=199160

[Mike @ May 10th 2009 1:53AM]

well in that case it should be

"congrats you got in, here's a free iphone"

[superhobo @ May 10th 2009 9:28AM]

No wonder the standard of journalism has been in steady decline.

[Guru @ May 9th 2009 11:19AM]

LOL I bet wm bb nokia samsung lg fanboys are upset due to they brand is not a requirement.insane!

[loocas @ May 10th 2009 10:40AM]

Mmmm... not really...