Missouri School of Journalism's iPhone "requirement" a clever interpretation of financial aid rules

by Ross Miller posted May 9th 2009 at 10:02AM

Here's an interesting new mandate for all of Missouri School of Jounalism's incoming freshman: equip themselves with iPhones and iPod touches. Actually, let's go ahead and clarify what "mandate" means here, as associate dean Brian Brooks has stated that no one will a be punished for not buying / owning one. While noting the audio recording and playback capabilities were motivation for this decision, he explains the reason it's classified as a requirement is because it lets students include it in their financial need estimate -- wholly beneficial when you're figuring out scholarships and loans. It doens't look like there'll be any direct discounts from U of M, however, unlike some other schools with similar initiatives. It's a clever loophole, to be sure, but we'd wager there's more than a few undergraduates who are none too pleased at the Apple favoritism, and to be honest, we love nothing more right now than imagining a large group of S60 and Zune supporters gathering in a field for frisbee, picnic, and lots of protesting.

[Via Macworld]

Filed under: Handsets, Apple

Tags: apple, apple iphone, apple ipod touch, AppleIphone, AppleIpodTouch, college, financial aid, FinancialAid, iphone, ipod, ipod touch, IpodTouch, journalism, journalist, missouri, missouri school of journalism, MissouriSchoolOfJournalism, school, univeristy of missouri, UniveristyOfMissouri, university

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Cole @ May 9th 2009 11:26AM

This is why higher education costs are such a joke. The federal government subsidizes students based on "need" which is left up to the discretion of the schools which are just gaming the system by including things like Apple laptops and iPods in the list of "requirements."

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asimo @ May 9th 2009 1:07PM

"While noting the audio recording and playback capabilities were motivation for this decision"

You can get $20 mp3 player that can record and play back audio. Are the authorities really that stupid, and do they expect the incoming students to be that stupid as well.

Nothing against apple, but the reason given is totally absurd. I would have bought another valid reason like iphone app for assignments and viewing lectures, etc, but audio recording and playback ???

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