This seems primarily like a marketing ploy. I signed up with my gmail account a few months ago and got my invite very soon (within 48 hours if not 24). Unless things have gotten worse, it seems more like an excuse to try to get students to sign up than Google giving students that much benefit.
Edit: Apparently the situation has gotten significantly worse since I signed up, which is not that long ago.
I think half of the reason Google uses invite-only beta services so much is to make people want the service more. People desire things more when they are scarce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarcity_value
I'm sure that adds something, but half seems a little high. The invitation tree must be highly valuable information when it comes to fighting spammers.
Things have gotten worse, though, it seems; when I signed up it took about a month before I got the invitation, and I know others who've been waiting ~two months now and still haven't gotten it.
I'm not saying that Google Voice isn't useful to students. I'm saying that students could have pretty much gotten an invite within a day even before this program just because the invite lag is pretty short. But it's easier to get people to blog, post to hacker news, etc. about a "special" program, so they more-or-less invented one.
As a student, google voice saved my ass on more than one occasion.
I landed in the hospital for 4 days, with no cell phone reception. If I hadn't been able to send texts over wifi with voice, I don't know what I would have done.
I had my dorm phone working with it too, it really was a lifesaver when I didn't have a cellular.
There's a lot of features that (I suspect) are prohibiting GV from getting a larger footing. This may be one of them, since GV is preaching liberation from being tied to your service provider... but then tying you to them as a service provider. I have a GV number and love the service, but this reason prevents me from giving it out and using the service more.
An even bigger "get with the program" feature is the ability to forward calls internationally. I'm a US-expat, and I'd kill for this feature (read: pay). I personally know many others who spend a lot of time traveling abroad, and pay for other half-baked solutions to this problem. And unlike portability, turning this on costs GV nothing.
The ability to transcribe your pre-recorded calls (which can be done with voicemail already) seems like it would be pretty easy to turn on as well. This would be a magnet feature for anyone who interviews for a living, and would be peanuts to implement.
I'm sure they're focusing on their core service, but it's been a year and I haven't really seen a lot of innovation going on over there.
I could use one, been waiting for a few months now. I guess I'm in the magic "nah, not you" bucket right now. If you haven't burned your last 3, I'd love one to ismarc31.
Edit: Apparently the situation has gotten significantly worse since I signed up, which is not that long ago.