One of the most important things you should do in college

Sometimes it seems like school is never going to end. It’s easy to believe you have all the time in the world to accomplish your “Things to do in college” list you probably prepared, at least mentally, before your freshman year ever began. You may have gotten around to rushing a sorority or fraternity, figured out you can’t fit that many people in a Volkswagen, or made the Dean’s List, you likely neglected to include one of the most important “must dos” on your list from the get go.

While in school, no matter what your major, you should allot a portion of your financial aid money to invest in a powerful computer and load it with relevant software. Why? Not only will it help you with your school work and the chance to familiarize yourself with programs you’ll be using when you start your career giving you a competitive edge but it’s cheaper…significantly cheaper.

Whether you are a Mac or a PC, both Apple and Dell offer student discounts that lower prices considerably on laptops, desktops and more. Companies like Adobe offer current students up to 80% off of their products and once you own the program you can purchase upgrades to newer versions after you have graduated. Check out JourneyEd.com for ever bigger student discounts.

One thing to note however, when selecting your software, is that there is sometimes a difference between the student version and the complete version of the software. The student version may be discounted but it might not come with all of the features in the complete version of the software, the license might expire after a certain period of time or the program might include a watermark on all of the projects it produces. An example of this would be Maya Software by Autodesk.

However, with Maya in particular the student edition and the bundle it includes can save you up to $17,900. Since the discount is so great and most companies that require work in Maya provide licenses to their employees the advantages to a student version far outweighs the disadvantage. Still it’s something to be aware of before you purchase your programs.

So before you order your cap and gown for graduation make sure you order your system and software too. It may seem like a big expense at the moment but in will pay off in the long run.

By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a multimedia developer, business owner, and work-from-home mom.