IT Purchasing Tips

Student/parent computer and software purchasing guidelines

Looking for contact information for repair and service vendors?

Hardware Sources - Optional

The college has standardized on Microsoft Office. For the best Office discount, please see the next section.

The vendors in this section have discounted hardware, not Office software.

HP Academy Discount Store - you will need to create an HP account to shop

Beginning in 2013, the majority of Windows PC hardware purchased by the college will be HP rather than Dell. However, for personal use you may purchase any brand. We listed HP and other brands because of their academic discounts.

Dell's academic site - Skidmore member ID = US53830003

Apple's academic site - No ID number is needed.

The Skidmore Shop sells Apple Macintosh computers (discounted academic pricing)
Contact Bob Carlton, 518-580-5491 (voice) or 518-580-5496 (fax)
or via the shop's web site.

Microsoft Office at Special Academic Pricing

The college has standardized on Microsoft Office. If you use another program like Apple's iWork or OpenOffice, faculty and other employees may not be able to read your documents. You could also have trouble if you email documents to yourself and then try to work on them in a campus computer lab or office. The IT Department recommends that you use Microsoft Office.

Student Orders:

Lowest Price and Most Complete Version: The Microsoft Store offers a 4 year subscription for both Mac and PC users. It's Office 365 University. You purchase online and during installation, the program inspects your computer and downloads either Office 2013 for a PC or Office 2011 for a Mac.

Because the software is very large, you want to do this when plugged into Ethernet or a cable modem rather than on Wi-Fi. Also, once you begin the download, you cannot put your computer to sleep until you finish.

You may install the software on 2 PCs or 2 Macs. When new versions of Office are released, you will be eligible as part of your subscription.

It is not compatible with Windows XP or Vista. The Macintosh version requires a recent version of OS X, 10.5 or newer.

If you are asked for your Microsoft account during installation, use your Skidmore email address and password. Because our email is at Microsoft, you have credentials for their services.

Office 365 University purchase and download for Mac and PC

Employee Orders:

Qualified employees may order Office through the Microsoft Home Use Program for $10 per download or slightly more if you want a disc.

Employees may order Microsoft Windows (but not Office) via e-academy.

Other Student Software

Mathematica for Students - directions for downloading

SPSS Student Software - Information regarding student purchases

Faculty and Staff Software

College owned computers:

IT holds licenses for Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Dreamweaver, ChemDraw, Fetch, 
Mathematica, SAS (limited number), Stata, and SPSS.
Request these college licensed products by help ticket.

Amos Structural Equation Modeling from SPSS: The college does not hold a license but will purchase individual copies for faculty with a need.
Please request Amos by help ticket.

The college owns a limited number of licenses for Oracle Calendar for use by employees. You may download it yourself or make a request by help ticket. Downloads are on the IT Software Tips page.

SPSS modules are licensed selectively. Those selected by the college are listed here.

Some software packages are licensed in limited amounts for use in labs but not your office. Examples include ArcGIS (GIS lab and Harder 108), Atlas ti, and SketchUp.

There are no campus licenses for other software such as Adobe Photoshop, Parallels Desktop (which is also unsupported here), QuarkXPress, and Finale. These unlicensed packages are purchased by individual departments, not IT. One source for discounted academic software is CDWG whose education sales number is 800-808-4239. Another source is SHI whose phone is 888-764-8888.

Faculty home/personal computers:

IT holds licenses for Fetch, Mathematica, and SPSS. Request the software by help ticket.

Faculty may also request Mathematica for home here.