How To Save The Most With Best Buy's Student Discount in 2024

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What Is Best Buy's Student Discount?

So, yes, the bad news must be spelled out very clearly upfront: Best Buy's old policy of offering deals exclusively for students has been compromised to a permanent end. In its place stands a tiered My Best Buy membership system:

My Best Buy: At this level, it's free to join. You won't get the exclusive discounts that the higher, paid tiers enjoy, but you will get no-minimum free shipping on most orders, while non-members have to spend $35 or more. As a student, you're well-trained at absorbing new information, so get this: free shipping costs less than paid shipping. Bargain.

My Best Buy Plus: This paid tier costs $50 per year, but quickly pays for itself. At this level, along with free 2-day shipping, you start to enjoy the benefits of exclusive discounts (including Best Buy's recent Member Days savings event), which include exciting deals like quick price-drops on newly-launched Apple products; you'll also be able to access member-exclusive product launches, and get an extended 60-day return/exchange window on most products.

My Best Buy Total: At this tier, which costs $180 a year, you become an uncrowned king or queen of discounts. All of the above perks, plus extras like protection plans (including AppleCare+), round-the-clock tech support, 20% off repairs, and savings on installations and haul-aways. Wait... hauls-away? Doctors Haul and Away.

As a student, you have nothing to lose by joining the free tier, obviously. Despite the Plus tier costing $50 a year, if you plan to do a lot of shopping at Best Buy, it'd be fairly easy to make more than that back in savings. The Total tier is probably a whole other conversation — a $180 upfront cost per year pretty much prevents it from being considered analogous to plain old student discounts.

What Were Best Buy's Student Discounts?

In the halcyon days of a few years ago, Best Buy had a slightly more regimented system for student discounts. You'd have to sign up to a free My Best Buy account, and sign up for student discounts to avail of the savings, which would then appear on your My Best Buy member page.

This came with sales offering student-friendly savings like up to $300 off MacBook Pro laptops, up to $200 off Chromebooks, and more. While these were labeled Student Discounts, they were actually available to anyone who hit the button to sign up. So perhaps all that's really changed is that Best Buy has abandoned the "student" labeling (which was probably scaring off some non-students who could have been shopping those sales) and put some of those discounts behind a $50 membership. One step forward, two steps back?

How Can Students Still Save at Best Buy?

Nevertheless, it remains eminently possible for students to save big at Best Buy. For one, it has a section dedicated to the best student-friendly computer deals — the prices aren't exclusive to students, but Best Buy at least spares you the digital legwork of seeking them out. This page assembles a collection of machines (including certified and Geek Squad refurbs) that come with significant discounts compared to buying new.

You'll also find that Best Buy has a section dedicated to Back to School savings, which at time of writing (which is a little bit before peak back to school season) offers discounts like $150 off an M2 MacBook Air, $100 off AirPods Max, $80 off Samsung Galaxy Buds2, and $50 off an Insignia 43" smart TV. The deals are open to everyone (with extra savings on select items for Plus or Total members), but you can sort by student-oriented categories, like "study essentials", or "dorm room and apartment", or "college tech under $100".

Outside of that, there are countless ways to save at Best Buy that aren't student-specific, but are equally likely to save students some money. Their daily deals offer regular savings on laptops, tablets, appliances, and more, with new offers available (you guessed it) every day. Their Outlet deals have strong discounts on open-box appliances, laptops, TVs, refurbished electronics, and clearance items. (The open-box and refurbished items are where a $180 My Best Buy Total plan bears fruit, since you get protection plans with most items.)

Paid-up My Best Buy Plus or Total members get the best of the general savings — members-only discounts were the focus of Best Buy's Member Days 7-day sale, which just ended on June 30. They also see extra savings across all of Best Buy's sales, including Black Friday, Cyber Week, Christmas, and more, as well as early access to those sales.

If you (or someone willing to shop on your behalf) is a military member, you can read up here on your best bets for rolling the dice on Best Buy's military discount. (There's no official policy we can point to, but we do our best to give you the best possible shot at getting the store's unofficial discount of 10% off full-price items.)

What Are Some Alternative Student Discounts?

Student discounts are still very much an ongoing concern at other stores, so if Best Buy's selection doesn't tickle your fancy, you'll still have plenty of avenues to save on laptops, tablets, and all the other college equipment you'll need. Some possibilities:

Apple: Use their Education Store to save on MacBooks and iPads — at time of writing, you can get up to a $150 Apple gift card with a qualifying purchase. You don't have to sign up or verify your identity.

HP: The HP Education Store takes up to 40% off select laptops, desktops, and more.

Lenovo: College students get an extra 10% off, while K-12 students get special discounts on Student Sale items. College students verify their discount with ID.me.

Samsung: After verifying your identity with ID.me, you'll save up to 30% in Samsung's Education Offers Program.

For more Best Buy deals and discounts, keep your eyes glued to our Best Buy store page. Besides that, you can also sign up for the DealNews Select newsletter, so a bunch of our handpicked hottest deals will arrive in your inbox every day. For more specific updates, you can set a Deal Alert to get notified when a product you're interested in goes on sale. And don't forget the DealNews App, which is DealNews, but in app form.