Rather than tell you about one or two pieces of inexpensive software, this week I’m going to tell you about a way to save tons of money on very expensive software – but only if you are the parent of a school-age child (or a student yourself).

Most large software companies offer their products at a steep discount to students and schools in the hope of nurturing future customers that, once gainfully employed, will pay full price to own and use software with which they’ve grown comfortable.

As I have not been a student for, er, a very long time, I have ignored these discounts, assuming I was not eligible. And though I am not eligible, I do have a daughter who just entered the second grade. You would think second graders would only be eligible for discounts on children’s educational programs, but it turns out that even kindergarteners qualify for prodigious discounts on professional-grade software.

I happened to be on an Internet hunt for a discounted version of Adobe’s Creative Suite 3, which includes such programs as PhotoShop, Illustrator and the page design program InDesign, all of which we use in the production of the Baltimore Sun. But if you want to dabble with such programs at home, you’re looking at a wallet-draining price tag: the standard design package lists for $1,200. If you’re upgrading from just one component (in my case, PhotoShop), it’s still $900.

That’s when I stumbled on the Web site for the Academic Superstore. They specialize in selling software at educational discounts, and they aren’t alone. Typing “academic software discount” into Google brings up dozens of similar sites. Browsing the Academic Superstore I quickly found CS3 standard selling for $389.95 and the premium version – which lists for $1,800 – for an astounding $589.95!

At that point, something else caught my attention: a chart that listed students from kindergarten through college as eligible for the discount. Still disbelieving my good fortune, I clicked on the Students/Parents eligibility page for more information. Here’s the key paragraph:

If you're a Student or Parent of a Student currently attending classes from Kindergarten through College, you can buy most products at a special academic discounts! The Student is the eligible customer and orders may be billed, shipped, and charged in the Parent's name. Yes, parents can buy a copy of Adobe Creative Suite or Microsoft Office for a Kindergarten Student at 30% to 50% savings over Retail prices!

There are several options for verifying the status of your student, all fairly easy. Older students with ID cards can submit those for verification of eligibility. I simply asked the principal of my daughter’s school for a Letter of Enrollment (a letter on school letterhead which says your child attends that school). The school e-mailed me the document a few days later. I forwarded the letter to the Academic Superstore and they validated my daughter’s eligibility within hours. My software was shipped shortly thereafter.

Not all the software is available at a huge discount, but it’s worth poking around any of the sites if you’re looking for something in particular. In addition to CS3, the Academic Superstore had high-end video software (Avid Xpress for $295 from $1,400) business software (FileMaker Pro for $178.95 from $300) and other categories ranging from CAD and Modeling to Research Tools. And of course you can find the expected stuff like the Microsoft Office Student and Teacher edition for $159.95).

Thanks, Mandy!