1. Opened a ticket with Corel, asking if my .EDU address was sufficient verification. Got a reply with a link to the product.
2. Replied: "Hi, that doesn't answer my question. What I'm asking is this: is a .EDU (school) email address sufficient to verify and activate the Educational version?"
3. Response from Corel: "That is correct. Since your email ends in .EDU you qualify for the Education Edition." Okay, great!
4. Went to the order page, clicked on the Buy button -- and it took me to another page repeating eligibility requirements and telling me I need to contact Corel AGAIN to have them verify my status.
5. Filled in the online form, which created another ticket, and wrote: "Per my ticket #XXXX, Jane Smith (Corel) confirmed that I qualify to purchase the Education Edition. Please let me know the next steps, thank you."
6. Corel response to second ticket: "A customer service representative has now created an online shopping cart which includes the products you've requested. To verify and complete your order, click on this link (URL)"
Yes -- online shopping where I had to send messages in order to have my shopping cart created.
Clicked the link, logged in with my account -- and the product was in my cart, ready to purchase. When I completed the purchase, my invoice included a download link for the installer and the serial number I will use. There was an installation instruction saying that, for certain components, I will have to login to my account again during the installation process.
So that's it. Posting the steps here in case any of you want to go through this.
PS: I actually purchased the Technical Suite version of Corel Draw -- all the programs of the regular 2018 Draw suite plus some technical drafting programs.
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Have you plotted a drawing yet?