Hey guys,
I'm just curious to know if there's an academic version of the Universal FCS. As a student, I currently own the academic version of the non-universal and I'm wondering what I need to do if I buy an intel based mac which may be in the near future. I know I cannot upgrade with the academic version, but is this "upgrade" classified as an upgrade? I'm just wondering because I really don't want to pay for the same thing again and I'm wondering if I pay the 99 bucks to upgrade, will I just get the intel based academic version (if it exists)?

thanks

I'm pretty new to the Apple camp, but my understanding is that Apple doesn't generally offer upgrades at academic pricing .... which is sometimes already below upgrade costs.

There is an exception at work right now.
Since Apple is no longer selling Motion, Soundtrack and DVD Studio seperately, they are offering (quite frankly amazing) crossgrade discounts.
Here's one of several threads on the topic:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=58985

In short, if you have a retail copy of Motion 2, DVD Studio Pro 4 or SoundtrackPro, you can buy FC Studio from Apple for $199.
I'd bought a used copy Motion 2 for a little more than $100 prior the announcement, so my total cost for the new Final Cut Studio (commercial licence) was just over $300 !!
Motion 2's full retail price was about $300, so if you can find a store like CompUSA that happens to still have that in stock, you could STILL get a commercial FCS for around $500, which is $200 less than the academic price!

Hope this helps.
Good luck!

I had FCS - Academic and crossgraded to the Universal binary without a problem and at the same price. Usually you can upgrade the academic but their is no price break there.

okay, that's what I wanted to hear - so if I go and pay the 99 bucks, I'll get a Universal FCS Academic copy, correct? Or did I misunderstand?

How much you have to pay depends on which version you have. I think the upgrade for Final Cut Studio is less than $99 (I'm in the UK now and mine was 35 pounds). The corssgrade is not really quite the same as an upgrade.

When you download the order form for the universal binary disk, the fine print DOES INCLUDE upgrade from the academic version. I was kind of surprised to see this, but it's in there.

-gb-