Microsoft 365 will be free for a year if you’re a college student
Say what you will about America’s tech titans cozying up to the current administration, but at least the kids are benefiting.
As part of a Thursday meeting with the White House’s AI Education Task Force — chaired by Melania Trump — Microsoft said it would provide a free Microsoft 365 Personal subscription to college students for a year’s time. Microsoft normally charges $99.99 annually for that Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, so that’s a fairly substantial savings for a college student.
Students will need to sign up for the (free) subscription using a college ID email address. The subscription includes everything that the Personal subscription already does, including access to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and more, plus Copilot and 1 TB of online storage.
There is a catch, of course: the first year’s free. After that, students will either be asked to pay another year’s subscription — though that will be discounted by half, to about $50 per year or $4.99 per month, Microsoft said.
Microsoft is also offering students and teachers free AI courses via LinkedIn Learning, the company said.
Microsoft isn’t the only company trying to convince U.S. students to join their programs. In addition to the typical student discounts offered to college students. Google said in April that the company will offer Google Gemini Advanced, plus perks like NotebookLM Plus and 2TB of cloud storage for free.
Not a student? Check out our guide on other ways to get Microsoft 365 for cheap. 
© 2025 PC World 5:25am  
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Get this Lenovo touchscreen laptop with 16GB RAM for $420, today only
Best Buy loves to sell a laptop at a great price for a single day, so if you’re in the market for one, the Deal of the Day page is great. For example, today it’s featuring a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 laptop with a Ryzen processor, big touchscreen, and 16GB of RAM, all for just $419.99. That’s an incredible deal, but you need to move fast to get it.
When we reviewed this laptop just a few months ago, reviewer Chris Hoffman said the IdeaPad Slim 3 is decent but priced way too high, so it “could be a great deal on sale.” Well, here it is. Note that the version he reviewed was an Intel variant, but otherwise it’s the same design—and the Ryzen 7 5825U is arguably the better pick if you want to do some light gaming. 512GB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and a touchscreen that’s not often seen at this price point are also great inclusions.
The laptop scored low on battery life with just three cells, but its port selection is solid with one USB-C, two USB-A, full-sized HDMI, and a standard SD card reader. It’s fairly middle-of-the-road for a 15-inch laptop in terms of portability with a 3.56-pound weight, but I’m glad to see both an IR camera for face unlock and a physical privacy shutter over the webcam—two more features you don’t often see below the $500 mark.
This Best Buy deal expires today (Friday, September 5th) at midnight Central US time (1 AM Eastern on Saturday), so get an order in quickly if you want one. There may be a demo unit available at your local Best Buy retail store, too. If this one doesn’t strike your fancy, then check out PCWorld’s picks for the best laptops on the market.
Get a Ryzen touchscreen laptop with 16GB RAM for $420, today onlyBuy now from Best Buy
© 2025 PC World 4:45am 
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