University Gives iPhones To All Incoming Students

Abilene Christian University announced that 2008 incoming freshmen will be receiving iPhones. And no, they won't be free - the price will be automatically added to the student's tuition.

The idea is to bring new technology and resources to students on the go.

They already have 15 web apps ready to go...some examples:

• Locate professors' offices
• Answer in-class surveys
• Check meal ticket balance
• Take quizzes
• Check grades
• Check schedules
• etc...

ACU says:

"We are not merely providing cutting-edge technology tools to our incoming students. We are also providing the web applications that ensure these tools will become critical to the students’ learning experience. Because 93 percent of ACU students bring their own computers with them to college, we are choosing to take them to the next level by providing converged mobile devices."

I'm not gonna lie, that's a pretty great idea on ACU's behalf.

Those are some lucky kids...there's no way their parents will notice the extra $300 on the $30,000 tuition bill.

The result? A free 3G iPhone :)

[ACU University via iPhone Buzz]

Comments

[edward2020]

"The result? A free 3G iPhone :)"

If I can direct your attention to the sentence above that where you mention that the cost is included in the tuition, I think you will see that it is not free at all. While I'm a gadgetphile myself, I'm not sure that increasing the cost of higher education so people can take surveys on a phone instead of a scantron, or find a professors office on their phone instead of their syllabus, is worthwhile on either a personal or societal level.