I just read in another thread that if you purchased Avid Media Composer after March 17th that you can upgrade to 3.0 for free - is this true?  I'm in a particular pickle - I own a Leopard system that would be intolerable to downgrade to Tiger, and am a student - but I graduate in May...and 3.0 ships in June...so can I buy the academic software now, and since it's after March 17th - upgrade for free?  I'm worried about the product shipping after I'm no longer a student and having to foot the $2,500 bill.

Thanks,
Mark. 

someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think you can ever upgrade educational software from Avid - even at cost.  if people are upgrading edu software then they are typically not using it for academic purposes.

this is tough I know - i got out of school in 2006 and had to take out yet another loan to purchase my avid setup.  but...it has helped me cut three features since then, so that loan was well spent! =)

You are correct. There is no option to upgrade an academic dongle to a full version. You need to call Avid inside sales and they will have pricing for you.

They used to (still?) have $999 upgrade option to take the academic verstion to full version.

Yeah but that was within a single product family. I know they have a deal to upgrade between 'Pro academic to MC full version. I just don't know what it is and Marianna suggests giving Avid a call.

BLKDOG:

Yeah but that was within a single product family. I know they have a deal to upgrade between 'Pro academic to MC full version. I just don't know what it is and Marianna suggests giving Avid a call.

The deal was: Within 30 days of graduating you have a one-time chance of upgrading your Academic XpressPro to a MC Commercial license for $1K. I've not heard if this has changed.

I was pretty sure it was within product families but the site has been taken down. 

From what I was told a couple years ago it was originally Xpress to MC Full after you graduate, but my school was one of the Avid Mentor Schools or whatever program which allowed us to buy MC Academic, and then upgrade to MC Full.

I was never aware of the 'within one month' rule but I am going to check on that since I gradaute in one month and wanted to take advantage of the program.

I have to have a chat tomorrow with the academic sales group anyway - I'll ask if this upgrade program is still running in any form.

Thanks, but I'm not really interested in 'upgrading' anyway - paying $1000 a month later to buy the version that will run on Leopard for a total bill of $1300....guess I'll just have to get my young brother to pick it up....damn timing!

No, you're missing a step. If you upgrade today, MC 3.0 will  be free for  you.

I'm not following you BLKDOG...?  I haven't purchased MC yet - and I'm not looking to get in over $300 -- I'm basically buying it to cut my own projects and learn it so that I can market that skill and get work in an AVID house as well as a FCP house - my school unfortunately really pushed FCP and I never learned REALLY learned Avid - mistake.  From what everyone was telling me if I buy the $300 MC now I would have to upgrade for $1,000 to the full MC and then I'd get the free 3.0 upgrade...?  From what I understood I can't just buy the $300 academic and then upgrade that to 3.0 - I don't know...maybe they'll still count me as a student in early June - but like I said, if not, I've got a brother in college still, so I can always go that route - it just seems stupid to pay in more money than I need to...not trying to cheat the system, but I mean, I graduate May 16th, so it's like a month or LESS.

Well, here's the thing. If you REALLY want to go full blown MC non-academic, then I would just wait and pay the upgrade cost to just that. If this is just something to play around with (and it's the same exact software, just no third party stuff), then I'd just stay academic for a while.

Are academic users eligible for the x.8.3 updates and the coming MC 3.0 upgrade? I can't seem to find the x.8.3 updates on the site. Is there a way to log in without a support contract?

You can upgrade to .8.3 assuming you have a registered your dongle. Once you do, request a Download Center (NOT CPR section) so you can log on and download it.