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Dhravya
Dhravya

Posted on • Originally published at blog.dhravya.dev

Github student benefits and the 15 rejections i faced to get 50+ services, for free.

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

https://us-east-1.tixte.net/uploads/img.dhravya.dev/l261e63hy0a.png

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

https://us-east-1.tixte.net/uploads/img.dhravya.dev/l262foh770a.png

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.

I tried every day, and i think i’ve kindaaa sent too many applications

I could not even contact support...

But FINALLY, I got a DM from Github education

(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.

Got a DM

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)

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john4650hub profile image
JohnDelvin

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

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dhravya profile image
Dhravya

I guess you should try the other document because they do take the old documents into consideration

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john4650hub profile image
JohnDelvin

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.

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just_moh_it profile image
Mohit Yadav

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 😆

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dhravya profile image
Dhravya

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

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just_moh_it profile image
Mohit Yadav

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