Coping with Rising Technology Costs

Pricey software and lack of access could leave students underwater

By Samantha Sykes
Observer Contributor

Between the prices of programs, project materials, computer accessories, books, and the sheer time and effort that Graphic Design classes demand of students, it’s no wonder that students can become stressed with college.

Finding less expensive alternatives to the programs and even program related books, which can easily climb over $100, can lessen the stress a student must face.

The GID (Graphics Interactive Design) program at the Mount takes the lack of varied software programs into consideration for students and has a computer lab available for student use. The lab has all of the required programs already downloaded onto the computers, so all a student has to do is plug in a flash drive, and get to work.

This doesn’t always help, however. The lab doesn’t open until around 10 a.m. and closes at 4 p.m. The only time a student can access the lab before 10 a.m. is if a graphics class is currently being held so the student can get in through the classrooms.

The assignments that are given for GID classes can be time consuming, and as the lab itself is only open 6 hours a day and a student usually has class time during these hours, the problems quickly become apparent.

The lab itself is incredibly useful and important to students who lack the programs themselves, but for students who want to use the programs on their own devices so that they can work on their projects on weekends, there is an additional alternative.

Barnes & Noble has recently offered a sale for college students where students can save up to 95% on many popular software and programs that students are likely to use for their classes. Deals like these can be lifesavers for students who can’t easily get them due to financial reasons. And the companies of those programs offer sales of their own for students as well.

The Adobe Creative Cloud suite, which requires monthly subscription payments to use regularly, is available for $19.99 a month to students and teachers for the first year. After the first year, the costs go up to $29.99; it should be noted, though, that the price is known to increase or decrease at times depending on Adobe’s current situation. And the free trial that Adobe offered that used to last a month has also been reduced to a mere week.

Without the student discount, however, the monthly cost increases to $52.99. This causes many problems for recent graduates who are trying to make a name for themselves. If the subscription is suspended for a month, users can no longer work on their creations as the programs they made them in are no longer usable until payments resume.

Adobe has begun offering an “Adobe Master Collection” download that operates as a one-time fee, which is great for individuals who might not be able to afford the alternative. The flat fee for permanent access to Photoshop alone, however, is around $700 to $1000, and the program is already considerably outdated.

College graduates who have to take out loans to cover the costs of college could easily find themselves struggling to pay off those loans along with the price of day-to-day living expenses. Adding the cost of nearly $50 a month for a program required for their livelihood seems almost unnecessarily cruel. Especially considering that in the past, those same programs could be purchased at a store for a flat rate and be used without any additional charges.

There are many other programs unaffiliated with Adobe that can be purchased through a flat fee or are even free to download and use. Krita, for instance, is an art program that is funded by donations and charges a flat rate to download their animation program.