[deanhills]

Well, My school CUNY have a cuny.edu domain appended to every school it's under, so I don't really need a .edu domain but it will be cool to have a universityname.ed domain. But either way I know most services that offer .edu discounts and stuff will accept mail that is from a higher level institution. Doesn't necessarily have to end in .edu. So if you have one higher level university email you can take advantage of discounts and other stuff from the mail even without using .edu.

I wish people can understand that for your school to qualify for any free service it has to be a subscriber to that free service first.  Like even if it is a dot.edu school, if it isn't subscribed to the free service, then it is logical that the domain attached to the .edu won't be recognized by the service.  So the logical thing to do is to check with the IT team of the school you belong to.  And find out which free programs you are entitled to and the school is subscribing to.  Like with Microsoft it often works with the licenses that the school is subscribing to.  Like a package deal.  And what can come out of that deal is an almost free MS Office for all students and staff of the school - like maybe 12 US$ of something like that.  Or the "Dreamspark" Microsoft program where Windows licenses and a selection of software are given for free.  If you want a free service that is provided to dot.edu schools and you find your school is not included, then ask your IT Team if they can try and get the school subscribed for that free service - like get them to apply for it on your behalf.