When I got started with programming, everywhere I went, I saw (good), but paid services. I would see them and say to myself “I really want to buy that when I get the money... It will help a lot”... And then, I came to know about Github’s student developer pack. But.... I got rejected... 15 times....
If you’re a student, this is for you
The benefits
I’ll only list the stuff I extensively use, and have become a part of my lifestyle now
- Canva premium for a year
- Educative pro for 6 months
- Namecheap, .tech, name.com domains
- Github PRO (I don’t know what extra stuff I get but I’m sure I’m using all of them loll)
- Gitlens+ (Very useful)
- Termius pro
- Replit hacker plan for 3 months
- Stripe waived transaction fees
- Browerstack for testing and stuff (really good for compatibility tests too)
Now that’s really good considering that all that is for FREE! For me, I use Educative the most, and there’s a lot more stuff that isn’t much useful for me but you might like
- Jetbrains IDE
- Bootstrap studio
- Azure, DigitalOcean credits
- Productivity tools like Dashlane premium, Pomodone and HazeOver
Damn
How to get the pack
It’s pretty easy, just go to education.github.com/pack and hit this button
Then you’ll be asked to give your email, school name, etc. Fill those in, and finally you’ll be asked to submit any document to prove that you’re a student. The only requirements are
- Should have your name (and preferably photo)
- Should have school name
- Should have the date of the academic year
ID cards are perfect for this.
Well, it’s supposed to be that easy. But clearly it wasn’t so easy for me...
My story (struggle)
So after I came to know about the students pack, I was actually shocked, and tried to apply immediately. However, I had just passed my 10th grade months ago, and I hadn’t received the ID card for my 11th grade, and since everything was online, I had nothing to show. So I just started with the proofs I had in 10th grade - ID card, report card, class photo. One by one, I submitted all of them.
Dhravya Shah@dhravyashah
I applied for the @github student developer kit again and got rejected for the 5TH TIME!!!!
- I am a student
- Since it's online right now, no ID cards are given
- I uploaded the class schedule, the document where my roll no. and other details were given06:11 AM - 08 Oct 2021
I tried every day, and i think i’ve kindaaa sent too many applications
Dhravya Shah@dhravyashahI have applied for #githubstudentdevkit 14 TIMES with all the possible proofs of me being a student.
rejected, every single time.
I tried contacting support but no one responded
Please help me @GitHubEducation @github @natfriedman10:29 AM - 10 Oct 2021
Dhravya Shah@dhravyashahGithub's automated software keeps rejecting my requests.....
@github @GitHubEducation #github @natfriedman07:31 AM - 09 Oct 2021
I could not even contact support...
Dhravya Shah@dhravyashah@GitHubEducation @github @natfriedman I contacted support again but it automatically sent me this response.
Can i get to talk to a real person about this issue?05:47 AM - 13 Oct 2021
But FINALLY, I got a DM from Github education
Dhravya Shah@dhravyashah.@GithubEducation Support is amazing. They saw my tweet and messaged me
And yes, I sent my email to them.... but they seem to be busy and haven't read my message quite yet. I hope they read it asap and solve my issue13:18 PM - 16 Oct 2021
(PS: It wasn’t as good. spoiler: Didn’t get a reply for a month)
Issue was, they never replied back! And I didn’t message too much because I knew it gets annoying for whoever is handling the account. So I did one, final tweet, and they got back to me. sigh
After a month of trying again and again, and even giving up for a couple weeks, I received it, finally.
So, happy ending, right? The same day, I met some ppl older than me and have already graduated, who HAD THE GITHUB PACK AND GOT IT IN THEIR FIRST TRY EVEN THOUGH THEY WEREN’T IN SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MEANWHILE ME WHO IS ACTUALLY A STUDENT HAD TO DO ALL THIS
Anyways, enough with the rant. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog, and if you find me funny (my friends call me not funny. prove them wrong), follow me on Github, Twitter, Dev.to
or well, don’t follow me and just 💖 this blog (or well, do both 😉)
Top comments (6)
I read this post yesterday and decided to test my luck. Today i recieved an email informing me that my application was rejected. Am a 17 year old student and although my school didn't appear in the list of schools, I applied for the student pack using my high school student id, it had everything that was required.Now should i try again with another document that shows am a student or just try again with my student id
I guess you should try the other document because they do take the old documents into consideration
I finally got it all i did was just write some javascript code to add a new date that was not there and then i screen shot it , cropped it and changed its contrast a little and resubmitted it again. I didn't have any other choice but to use my skills this time.
Truly inspiring story! I now have motivation to see the joy in the smallest of things! JK haha
Btw, I'm impressed you tried so hard. I got one for my sister and one from my account using a two-year-old ID card in the first try. I also asked my college friends if they're using it, and most of them said no. So I now have 5-6 extra education packs 😆
lmaooo yeahh. At some point i just took it like a challenge haha
Btw that's just insane. Makes me think how many people must be abusing the system to get benefits loll
It's not actually abusing, they use it many times with things like Canva, just not with code-related stuff. But yeah, it sometimes challenges the meaning of student packs