I joined the AIGA through my school, and it’s been nifty having design events emailed to me, but other than that it’s been pretty useless. There are lots of discounts and special offers and competitions though… for print designers.
Schools make an effort to get students involved in AIGA which in turn, does little to expand the student’s idea of what design is/can be. It just ends up reinforcing the elitist ‘print is the way of the gods’ thang.
(nothin’ against print, but I am sort of suffocated by it in school)