Students Only: Microsoft Office Ultimate for $60

I swear, this is completely legit. It's a Microsoft-sponsored special offer, completely on the up and up: For the rest of the school year (until April 30, 2008), students can get Microsoft Office 2007, the Ultimate Edition (which seriously has everything in it and normally runs $680), for 60 bucks.

You get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, as well as a whole host of extras, including a few that students might actually find useful, like Access, Publisher, note-taking software OneNote, and collaboration software Groove. As Microsoft itself puts it, "the entire suite will cost less than any single part costs on its own." The promo is available in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. immediately. France, Italy, and Spain follow on September 20.

What's the catch? You have to be a student. Microsoft hasn't said what counts as a student: college, highschool, Ph.D. candidate? My daughter's technically a student (she's in kindergarten). If I give her 60 bucks can she buy it? The only way to find out is to try when the site goes live: The offer is supposed to start any minute now at theultimatesteal.com... but as I write this my countdown clock is still in the four-hour range (as I finish editing it's up to 16 hours). Check it on the 13th! (UPDATE: The offer site is now live. Turns out you need a .edu email address (plus other restrictions) to be eligible for the offer. Bummer.)

Also note that many commenters are saying that various versions of Office can be had for as little as $25 at on-campus computer stores, though no one seems to be able to match the $60 Ultimate pricing. Frankly, even if you don't need all those features, it may be worth it to invest in the Ultimate version so you'll have it after graduation.

LINK: Office Ultimate 2007: Just $60 (for students)