Help with buying land for educational purposes

I have been looking at buying a space in Second Life for a University project. My university has offered funding to some extent and would now like to know the exact price this is all going to cost. Since it is going to be bought and held by the university I believe it is eligible for a 50% discount (for island purchases only?).

Does anyone know if the educational discount still applies to land maintenance fees even if an island is not what is being purchased? (As I understand it, non-island land purchases are exempt from the 50% discount on the price of the land).

Any extra info on this topic would be great. Just to clarify... the university also needs a premium account subcription and to pay maintence fees as well as the price of the land in order to own land in Second Life.. is that correct?

Hi Elise!

I went through this process for my Uni department a few months back and it went really smoothly.

You do indeed get a discount on the purchase price and monthly fees of 50%

Island purcahse and 12 months maintanece fees came to $2607.50 rather than $5215.00.

You don't need a premium account to buy or maintain an island, but you will probably need a dedicated basic alt to do so. I've found it useful to have such an alt for setting up groups and keeping all the billing separate etc.

For payment I managed to convince my Uni to set me up with a business visa card for everything, I used it to buy the island and now for buying lindens needed for the project. It's linked to the grant that pays for it all and makes life so much easier than the alternatives (claiming back, wire transfers etc).

There is also an eductional mailing list SLED, you can get to it by following the eductaion non-profit links from main SL webpage. You may find it useful.

Ee

Hi Ee

Thanks so much for your reply! That 50% discount you got was because you had purchased and island though, right? Non- island purchases are not subject to the same discount, are they?

And are you positive about not needing a premium account? I seem to read everywhere on the SL webpage "Upgrade to premium and own land".

I think I will give their customer service a call. I have upgraded to premium for the extra support.

Thanks again for your reply! It's certainly given me some things to think about I will sign up for SLED too I wouldn't mind coming to check out your project as well, I'd like to see what other people have done within SL.

Yes, the discount is only for a whole island.....

And I am POSITIVE you don't need a premium account to buy an island... I've done all my buying and paying of fees through a basic alt set up specifically for the purpose.

A premium account is needed to buy plots of land on the mainland..

Even with a basic membership, with an island you get the top level (concierge) of support

You're welcome to visit once I'm up and running... Summer's been rather slow... but term starts in three weeks, yikes!

Have fun....

Ah okay, that's cleared things up

Thank you so much!