Yeah, this is their version of "get 'em while they're young". There's also http://dreamspark.com which gives out free copies of Microsoft's developer tools (Visual Studio, SQL Server, etc) to students.
IEEE and ACM also dole out MS developer tools to students for free (price of subscription). For example I got Windows 7 release to manufacturing -edition from ACM this way two or three months before its launch date.
They've since pulled the plug on the offer.