The Best Thing about Being a Student

Brianna G.

April 17, 2011 - 8:31 PM

At my job as a student caller, the first thing we do each shift is read announcements and introduce ourselves. In this introduction, we always say our name, and then answer two questions posed to us. The job encourages us to get to know each other anyway, and this is one other way to introduce fun facts about you to the rest of the call center. Earlier this week, one of the questions asked "What is your favorite student deal?" and this got me thinking. As students, we are often rewarded for our inexperience and lack of life knowledge by offering us all sorts of discounts. There are so many student discounts that I have taken advantage throughout my life, and that time is coming to a close in the near future. My UO id card has saved me so much money! So in honor of this wonderful time coming to an end, I've compiled a list of the best student deals I've taken advantage of in the past four years.

TRACKTOWN PIZZA. Anyone who knows me well, knows how much I love Tracktown Pizza. It has been a bit of a tradition of mine to spend Friday afternoons at my favorite pizza place, partaking in a wonderful deal known as the "Student Buffet." This deal gets you unlimited pizza, soda, and access to the salad bar, and it's offered at a great price. Making this already fabulous deal even better is that they also offer coupons for this in the Daily Emerald or the student survival coupon books (we'll get to this later). This may be my favorite deal, just because of the tasty pizza and memories associated with it.

CHEBA HUT. Another delicious restaurant catering to the student population, Cheba Hut, offers half priced sub sandwiches every Monday with your student id card. And on Mondays, if you want a sandwich you should plan for the line to be out the door. The long wait, or odd time of day need to order a sandwich quickly is absolutely worth it, as Cheba Hut has some of the best sandwiches in Eugene. One just needs to come prepared, because they are sticklers on the id and won't let you call in orders.

SURVIVAL KIT COUPON BOOKS. At the beginning of every term, the university hands out coupon books, and every term my roommates and I all stock up on them. These books are like gold- they have coupons to tons of my favorite restaurants, bookstores, bicycle shops, entertainment, etc. They cover nearly everything a student could want or need, and thus many of us students rarely go anywhere without them. Additionally awesome is that the coupons can be found online, so once you use the all of the coupons you've managed to snag, you can find more online.

LANE TRANSIT. Another fantastic student resource is our ability to ride the bus for free, with just one flash of our id cards. Luckily the U of O has a great deal with LTD allowing us to make full use of the bus system. Having lived far enough away from campus that walking everyday was trying for my second and third year of college, this was a god-send. Now I live close enough to walk regularly, but I continue to occasionally make use of the bus. Even still, I have ridden it thousands of time and am so thankful to have that student resource available to me.

UO ATHLETIC EVENTS. One of the best things about being a student, specifically at the U of O, is our ability to attend all of the athletic events on campus. Now I find football to be the highlight of this perk, and I am not looking forward to having to pay outright for football tickets starting next year. I have also taken advantage of many other sporting events at the U of O, from football to baseball to the stunt and tumble team. Having to pay for such sporting events will be considerably less fun, in my opinion.

TRAVEL DISCOUNTS. I can't even begin to cover how many discounts I've gotten while traveling because of my student status. Nearly every museum that I have wandered through throughout the world offered student discounts of one type or another. There are also the money saving benefits that youth hostels offer worldwide, and I've even gotten deals on plane tickets. The travel industry is very good to students.

With this list just including some of my favorite and most utilized discounts, and not even touching on some other fantastic ones involving less food and more relating to other areas of the world, there are so many ways to save money out there! I didn't even mention how Amazon.com gives student discounts, or the incredibly massive discount offered on Adobe products. With all of these great deals out there, I am not looking forward to losing my student status!