Shopping

Amazon Prime

Amazon

If you’re not piggy-backing off of your parents’ Amazon Prime account, you can have the subscription for less while you’re in school. College students can get Prime Student for $6.50 per month or $60 per year, and it includes the same perks as a standard Prime membership including free two-day shipping, free same-day delivery in select areas, and access to the entire Prime Video library. Amazon also currently offers a six-month free trial, so you’ll pay even less during your first year.

Buy Prime Student at Amazon – $60/year

Shipt

Shipt is similar to DoorDash but for groceries and household essentials: Pay an annual fee and you can get same-day delivery from numerous stores including Target, Costco and CVS. Shipt’s student plan costs $50 for the year — a 50-percent discount from the normal price — and you get the first two weeks free. Just double check that Shipt has stores available in your area before you subscribe.

Buy Shipt – $50/year

Apple

Apple offers some deals to students and educators. This year in particular, Apple is throwing in a free pair of AirPods when you buy select Macs or iPads for college. You’ll get AirPods with the regular wired charging case free, or you can upgrade to AirPods with the wireless charging case for $40 more. Alternatively, you can get the AirPods Pro for $90 more. Apple knows how popular AirPods are and it clearly wants to sweeten the deal for students who have been thinking about getting a new computer before heading off to college.

The AirPods promotion also includes Apple education pricing on Macs and iPads. There isn’t a flat percentage rate across all products; the discounts are device dependent. For example, right now students can get a new MacBook Air starting at $899, which is $100 less than the normal starting price. The 13-inch MacBook Pro also starts off $100 cheaper and the new iPad Pros start at $749, or $50 cheaper than normal. These are decent savings if you must have a brand new Apple product, but those with tighter budgets should also consider Apple’s refurbishment program.

Shop Apple’s back-to-school promos

Samsung

Samsung offers up to 10 percent off most of its products to students and educators. The Galaxy manufacturer also has some decent offers like a free pair of Galaxy Buds when you buy a Samsung Chromebook. We’d recommend stretching that 10 percent discount as much as possible by using it on big-ticket items like a Samsung laptop or a Galaxy smartphone if you need one. Otherwise, Samsung has solid accessories like the T5 portable SSD and the Galaxy Watch Active 2.

Shop Samsung’s back-to-school promos

Microsoft

Microsoft also provides students and educators with up to 10 percent off its gadgets, including the already affordable Surface Go 2 and the new Surface Headphones 2. And Microsoft’s online store doesn’t only sell Surface devices — you can also find Windows PCs from Lenovo, HP, Acer and others there at discounted prices.

Shop Microsoft’s back-to-school promos

Streaming

Spotify

Will Lipman Photography / Spotify

Spotify Premium’s student plan gives you a lot for only $5 per month. Besides access to millions of songs, it also includes Hulu’s ad-supported plan and Showtime’s ad-free service. You’d spend roughly $27 per month if you paid for all three separately at their full prices, making this student offer one of the best you can get.

Buy Spotify Premium Student – $5/month

Pandora

Pandora also offers students its Premium membership for $5 per month. Pandora’s offering doesn’t include any additional services, but you do get an ad-free experience, personalized music, unlimited skips and unlimited offline play. 

Buy Pandora Premium Student- $5/month

Apple Music

Apple also slashes 50 percent off its Apple Music subscription for students, bringing it down to $5 per month. The offer is available for up to 48 months so you can enjoy the rate for the entirety of your college experience. What’s more, the company bundles Apple TV+ in this student offer, so you can watch Apple originals like The Morning Show and See. 

Buy Apple Music Student membership – $5/month

Tidal

Tidal provides student discounts on both of its streaming services: Premium and Hi-Fi. Premium drops to $5 per month, down from $10, while Hi-Fi costs $10 per month, down from $20. Tidal is still often overshadowed by Spotify and Apple Music, but these discounts are a good way to give it a try without spending too much money.

Buy Tidal Student starting at $10/month

YouTube

If you’re already spending a lot of time watching YouTube, you may have a better experience with YouTube Premium. The Student plan knocks nearly 50 percent off the price so you’ll pay $7 per month for ad-free video viewing, background play, video downloads and access to YouTube Premium Music. The latter is YouTube’s attempt at a Spotify/Apple Music competitor, but it has a long way to go before it can really hold a candle to those services. However, if you listen to most of your music via YouTube already, Premium could be your one-stop-shop for music and video streaming.

Buy YouTube Premium Student – $7/month

Audible

Audible can be a good way to supplement your Libby audiobook borrowing habit, especially when the student discount costs only $10 per month. That’s $5 less than a regular membership and you get all the perks: one credit per month for you to use on any title in Audible’s library plus two Audible Originals for free. The company also has daily deals and book sales regularly that are only available to members, so you can often snag two titles for the price of one or for as low as $2.

Buy Audible Student – $10/month

Headspace

Being a student is stressful even in the best of times, but now it’s even more difficult to concentrate and find peace. Headspace is just one of many meditation and mindfulness apps available that can help with that, but it stands apart with a great student discount: $10 for the entire year, or $60 less than a normal annual membership. In addition to a large library of meditation lessons and routines to follow, Headspace recently added SleepCasts, a collection of soothing voices reading bedtime stories to help you fall asleep, as well as “mindful” workout routines.

Buy Headspace Student plan – $10/year

Tools

Adobe Creative Cloud 

Adobe

You’re probably using Adobe products if you’re studying anything to do with digital art or design. Adobe CC is the industry standard in this space but the entire suite of programs is quite expensive at $53 per month. Thankfully, Adobe has education pricing for students that drops the entire creative suite to $20 per month for the first year. That includes the big programs like Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC along with Lightroom CC, Premiere Pro CC, Adobe XD and more.

After your first year, the monthly cost increases to $30 per month. While not ideal, it’s still more affordable for students than it is for industry professionals. If you’re not tied to Adobe programs, you can also consider Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher apps from Serif ($50 each for the Mac or Windows versions), which compete with Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.

Buy Adobe CC for students – $20/month

Microsoft 365

Many students have to use Microsoft 365 tools on a regular basis. If your college or university doesn’t provide you with an account, you can still get Microsoft 365 for free by taking advantage of the company’s student and educator discount. This gives you access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and even Microsoft Teams free of charge, which is a great deal considering an annual subscription costs $100.

Get Microsoft 365

Ulysses

Spending all day and night writing papers is even more frustrating when you don’t have all your writing organized in one place. Ulysses is a popular writing app for mac/iOS that can be used for note taking as well as thesis writing, with features like auto-save and auto-backup, word-count writing goals, markup, plain text support and DropBox integration. Normally, Ulysses costs $40 per year but students can get it for only $11 every six months, or $22 per year. There isn’t a direct alternative for Windows users, but you do have options including Scrivener (a one-time student price of $41.65), IA Writer (a $20 one-time price) and FocusWriter (free and open-source).

Buy Ulysses – $22/year

LastPass Premium

Keep all of your school passwords and login information safe (and easily accessible) with a password manager like LastPass Premium. While the password manager doesn’t technically have a student discount, it does offer students six months of Premium for free. Premium, which costs $36 annually, adds 1GB of encrypted file storage on top of the features included in LastPass’ free tier — those include password storage and accessibility on all devices, password generator, multi-factor authentication and more. We suggest snagging the free six-month offer and deciding later if you want to continue with Premium or opt for the free tier.

Get LastPass

Squarespace Student plan

Whether you’re itching to get a jump-start on your portfolio or just want an online space for to show off your work, Squarespace is a good option as it gives students a 50 percent discount on any of its annual plans. The most affordable option will cost $72 for the year, which is half the normal yearly price of $144. Squarespace is one of many website builders out there, but it’s particularly popular with creative professionals. Its customizable templates make it easy to build a website and make it look exactly how you want it. Plus, you can upgrade down the line to add things like website analytics, custom JavaScript and CSS and e-commerce.

Buy Squarespace starting at $72/year

News

Will Lipman Photography / The Atlantic

It’s always been important to keep up with the news, but it’s never been more important than it is now. Yes, it’s daunting sometimes and we don’t expect (or encourage) you to inhale every breaking-news headline as it’s published. However, it’s crucial to know what’s going on in the country and the world as a whole. Here are some reputable news organizations that offer student discounts on their monthly or annual subscription plans.

The Atlantic: Starts at $25 per year for digital-only access.

The New York Times: $4 every four weeks for a base subscription.

The Washington Post: $5 every four weeks for digital-only access.

The Wall Street Journal: Starting at $1 per month for the Student Digital Pack.

So what should I use?

There are dozens if not hundreds of note-taking apps to choose from. All of them, unsurprisingly, promise to make you an organization and productivity guru. If you’re struggling to sift through them all, it’s important to ask the following questions.

What hardware do I own?

First and foremost, eliminate any service that doesn’t support your primary devices. For argument’s sake, let’s say you own a Macbook Pro and an Android smartphone: You can immediately rule out any platform that doesn’t support Google’s mobile operating system, like Bear and Ulysses. Why? Because it’s critical that you can access your notes anytime, anywhere. A good, reliable mobile app means you can speed-read some revision notes while sitting on the bus or waiting in line for coffee. It’s also a decent backup if you forget to charge your laptop or tablet before class.

What’s my learning style?

If you haven’t already, take a “learning style” quiz. It will explain whether you absorb and process information best with visuals (photographs, diagrams, maps, et cetera), audio (podcasts, audiobooks, class recordings), words (good old-fashioned reading and writing) or some sort of physical, tactile representation (looking at a globe, fixing a car by hand, et cetera).

What am I studying?

You should then consider your subjects. What would be the best way to represent and digest the course materials? A photography degree, for instance, will probably cover some prolific shutterbugs like Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson. If you want to remember their lives and techniques, it makes sense to build some notes that contain a mixture of text and example images.

What’s my budget?

Don’t spend what you can’t afford. Set yourself a budget (we have a guide for managing your finances too) and dismiss anything that goes above it. Be wary, too, of “free” versions that lock basic features like offline access and cross-device syncing behind expensive subscription plans. You don’t want to feel constrained by your note-taking app in class.

Our picks

It’s impossible to pick a single “best” note-taking app. Instead, we’ve made some suggestions that are tailored to specific users, devices and learning styles.

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“I want to do everything with an iPad and Apple Pencil.”

Our pick: Notability

• Platforms: iOS, macOS
• Price: $9.99 ($19.98 for both)

Apple’s iPad and Pencil stylus are a powerful combination. The former gives you limitless paper — both in volume and sheet size — while the latter can seamlessly switch among a near infinite number of multicolored pens, brushes and highlighters. If you plan to use this combination for most of your college work, we recommend Notability by Ginger Labs. The software is a tad more expensive than GoodNotes 5, but we prefer its general look and side rail organization as well as the way it smoothes out handwriting. Notability has a desktop app too, which is valuable if you occasionally switch over to a conventional laptop or PC.

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“I want to use a tablet and a laptop or PC.”

Our pick: OneNote

• Platforms: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows 10, web
• Price: Free

If you split your time evenly between a tablet and PC, it’s worth checking out OneNote. We love Microsoft’s software because it’s completely free and available on a wide range of platforms. You can organize your life in any number of notebooks and nested sections, which are then backed up to your Microsoft OneDrive account by default. Individual notes can also support a vast number of media types, including text, images, hand-drawn doodles and audio recordings. You can also share your notebooks and collaborate on individual notes with other people. We love Evernote too, but the free tier limits account access to two devices.

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“I’m a power user who wants to customize everything.”

Our pick: Notion

• Platforms: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows 10, web
• Price: Free, $4/month (personal), $8/month (team), $20/month (enterprise)

Notion is a note-taking app with a cult-like following, and with good reason. It’s an extremely powerful and versatile option that supports simple to-do lists, longer blog posts and a whole bunch of other get-your-life-together tools, such as Kanban project-management boards, calendars and Wiki-style databases. Pages (Notion’s term for notes) can also link to pages stored in a completely different part of the app. The software can be daunting for newcomers, however, and building the perfect setup takes time. Thankfully, the company has developed a bunch of page templates and posted some helpful guides online.

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“I have a Chromebook. What are my options?”

Our pick: Google Keep (plus Docs)

• Platforms: iOS, Android, Chrome, web
• Price: Free

A Chromebook is one of the cheapest ways to get a laptop-like experience with desktop-class web browsing. If you’re using one for school, we recommend Google Keep and Docs for most of your assignments. Keep is a dead-simple tool for capturing quick-and-dirty lesson summaries, deadlines and daily to-do lists. Docs, meanwhile, is a conventional writing application similar to Microsoft Word. It’s great for converting shorter notes into longer, meatier essays and revision documents. With a dedicated Chrome extension, you can also create, view and edit all of your Google Docs content offline.

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“I want to take notes with paper and pen!”

Our pick: Evernote

• Platforms: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows 10, web
• Price: Free (basic), $7.99/month (premium), $14.99/month (business)

Not a problem. For many people, the physical act of writing helps their brain memorize the information. An app can still be useful, though, for creating a digital backup that can be accessed anywhere. Many note-taking apps have a built-in camera feature, but not all are designed for handwritten documents. Evernote is one of the few that can smartly detect and capture a note while the camera is open. It will then make subtle adjustments, including contrast tweaks, based on whether it’s a notebook page, business card, receipt or whiteboard. Otherwise, we highly recommend Microsoft OneNote — a truly free alternative, provided you have cloud storage — for capturing your handouts and Moleskine pages.

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“I want a lightweight app for quick, simple notes.”

Our pick: Google Keep

• Platforms: iOS, Android, Chrome, web
• Price: Free

Just want a place to dump quick thoughts, ideas and reminders? Again, we recommend Google Keep. The free software has a simple and clean design that anyone can grasp in a matter of seconds. We love the labeling system and ability to change a note’s background color, just like a wad of multicolored sticky notes. There are plenty of other options, though, including Simplenote and the pre-installed Apple Notes app for iPhone, iPad and macOS. Zoho Notebook, meanwhile, is a free alternative with beautiful “cards” designed for blocks of text, checklists, audio snippets, photographs, files and hand-drawn sketches.

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“I want an app for serious writing too.”

Our pick: Ulysses

• Platforms: iOS, macOS
• Price: $4.99/month or $39.99/year

Many people want a single app for all of their notes and school-based assignments. The ideal solution should, therefore, have a text editor that’s competitive with, if not superior to, Microsoft Word and Google Docs. One such tool is Ulysses, which offers a beautiful design and a super smart take on Markdown, dubbed Markdown XL, for text formatting. At the time of writing, though, it’s only available for iOS and macOS users. Bear, another writing app that we absolutely love, shares the same problem. Dropbox Paper is an intriguing alternative but relies on the web for desktop editing. There’s also Scrivener, an expensive but powerful writing app that’s available for iOS, Windows 10 and macOS — but sadly not Android.