from Hacker News

Why I don't offer “student discounts”

by kadavy on 6/1/18, 1:35 AM with 12 comments

• by bmer on 6/1/18, 3:07 AM

  You're comparing the courses you're offering to a Lamborghini? Cool, but I don't see why I should place as much value in your product. In fact, you might simply be going for a Veblen goods effect, just like the Lamborghini.

  That's only one part of the problem in your essay.

  The other part is that it assumes that:

  1) every student in the world is in the US and

  2) every student in the world is poor entirely because of university fees.

  Frankly, whenever someone wants to shell out money for an online course, I caution them. There are tons of free resources out there, some legal, and some not, but all provide quality education.

• by rahimnathwani on 6/1/18, 4:29 AM

  If you will increase your total profits by offering a student discount, then offer a student discount. If not, then don't.

  Cinemas don't offer preferential pricing to children just to be nice. They do it to maximize profits as, overall, children are more price-sensitive. And it's much easier to enforce 'child-only' prices than it is to enforce 'disposable-income-less-than-X' pricing.

• by msie on 6/1/18, 3:18 AM

  He gives a poor and what i believe to be a dishonest reason that im not inclined to examine his courses anymore.