Published Dec 23, 2023 ⦁ 15 min read
GitHub Student Pack Essentials

GitHub Student Pack Essentials

As a student developer, having access to professional coding tools can be invaluable for building skills and showcasing your work.

Luckily, GitHub offers students a free Developer Pack with essential tools to boost your coding education at no cost.

In this post, we'll explore the key benefits of the GitHub Student Developer Pack, from GitHub Pro and free domain registration to interactive courses and more.

Introduction to the GitHub Student Developer Pack

The GitHub Student Developer Pack provides a variety of exclusive tools, services, and benefits for students interested in software development. This pack aims to help students master in-demand skills and build an impressive portfolio to kickstart their careers.

Exploring GitHub Student Benefits

Some of the key benefits of the GitHub Student Developer Pack include:

  • Free access to GitHub Pro and GitHub Team collaboration features
  • Free .me domain from Namecheap for a year
  • $50 in credit for DigitalOcean to deploy cloud applications
  • Access to free courses on Educative to build in-demand tech skills

These benefits can help students practice real-world collaboration workflows, establish a personal brand, deploy applications, and enhance their learning - all at no cost.

GitHub Pro Student: Professional Tools at No Cost

With GitHub Pro Student, learners can access a suite of professional developer tools including:

  • Unlimited private repositories
  • Powerful code review features
  • 3,000 Actions minutes/month
  • Advanced security tools like code scanning

These features mirror real-world software teams and help students collaborate effectively, manage large projects, and write higher quality code.

GitHub Student Free Domain with Namecheap

Students can register a free .me domain from Namecheap for one year. This is useful for:

  • Building an online portfolio
  • Creating a personal website
  • Establishing a professional brand

Owning a custom domain looks great on a resume and helps students stand out.

Educative.io: Enhancing Coding Knowledge

Educative.io provides text-based courses with interactive coding challenges across popular topics like:

  • Web development (React, Angular, Vue)
  • Cloud computing (AWS, Azure, GCP)
  • Software engineering best practices

These courses help reinforce student learning and provide structured pathways to gain new skills.

The Role of GitHub Classroom in Learning

GitHub Classroom empowers teachers to distribute code assignments, provide feedback, and manage student progress easily using GitHub. Some key features include:

  • Flexible assignment creation
  • Automated repository creation/management
  • Testing integration
  • Code reviews and feedback tools

By integrating Classroom into curriculums, students can sharpen their skills and demonstrate learning outcomes more effectively.

Is GitHub free for students?

GitHub offers a free Student Developer Pack that provides students access to industry-leading developer tools and services. Here are some of the key benefits available for free to students:

  • GitHub Pro account (2 years free access)
  • Unlimited private repositories with GitHub Pro
  • Access to GitHub Copilot technical writing assistant
  • Free .me domain for 1 year from Namecheap
  • $100 in credit for cloud services on DigitalOcean
  • Access to 100+ courses on Educative
  • 50% off 1Password password manager

To get access, you just need to sign up with a student email address from an accredited academic institution. Once verified, you can claim all the student benefits and perks.

The GitHub Student Developer Pack helps students learn real-world skills and build an impressive portfolio. By collaborating through GitHub repositories with classmates and professors, you can showcase your work to future employers.

Overall, GitHub offers students an invaluable opportunity to access top developer tools for free. This allows students to get hands-on experience using the same services that professional developers rely on.

Is GitHub copilot still free for students?

GitHub Copilot can be an invaluable tool for students looking to accelerate their coding journey. The autocomplete tool helps suggest line completions and entire function definitions as you type, using context from millions of open source repositories.

Fortunately, GitHub offers GitHub Copilot for free to verified students through the GitHub Student Developer Pack. As long as you have a valid school-issued email address, you can sign up to access GitHub Copilot at no cost.

To recap, here are a few key points about GitHub Copilot's availability for students:

  • GitHub Copilot is free for verified students. No credit card required.
  • Sign up is easy - just use your school-issued email address during the process.
  • Free access applies to both GitHub Copilot Individual accounts as well as GitHub Copilot Business accounts managed through a verified academic organization.
  • Once verified, you can enable GitHub Copilot directly within your GitHub account and start using it when coding.

So in summary - yes, GitHub Copilot continues to be completely free for all verified students to accelerate their learning. GitHub wants to empower the next generation of developers, so take advantage of this invaluable autocomplete tool throughout your academic journey.

Is GitHub student pack worth it?

The GitHub Student Developer Pack provides students with free access to many essential developer tools and resources that would otherwise require paid subscriptions. Here are some of the key benefits that make it worthwhile:

Access to Premium Tools

You get free access to industry-standard tools like:

  • GitHub Pro (usually $7/month) - Additional GitHub features like unlimited private repositories
  • Azure DevOps (usually $6/month) - Cloud development and deployment tools
  • DigitalOcean ($100 in credit) - Cloud hosting for websites and apps

Learning Resources

The pack includes free access to premium learning platforms like:

  • Educative ($29/month value) - Text and video courses on trending dev topics
  • StackSkills Unlimited ($149/month value) - Over 1000+ developer courses

Other Perks

You also get additional student-friendly perks like:

  • Namecheap (.me domain) - Free 1-year domain for your projects
  • Student Beans - Exclusive student discounts from top brands

Having access to real-world tools gives you hands-on experience and allows you to build an impressive portfolio to show employers. Overall, the GitHub Student Pack provides incredible value that can give students a head start in their careers.

What are the requirements for GitHub for students?

To qualify for GitHub Student benefits, you must:

  • Be currently enrolled in a degree or diploma granting course of study such as a high school, secondary school, college, university, homeschool, or similar educational institution.
  • Have a verifiable school-issued email address or upload documents that prove your current student status.
  • Have a GitHub personal account.

GitHub offers free access to various premium developer tools and services for students via the GitHub Student Developer Pack. To qualify, you simply need to verify your student status with a valid school email address or by providing enrollment documentation.

Once verified, students gain access to benefits like:

  • Free private GitHub repos
  • Free access to GitHub Copilot
  • Discounts on other paid GitHub offerings
  • Free services from industry partners like Azure, DigitalOcean, Namecheap, and more

Verifying student status is easy and opens up a lot of valuable resources for learning developers. The requirements are quite straightforward - just be actively enrolled in school and have a GitHub account.

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Unlocking the GitHub Student Developer Pack

Verifying student status gives access to the full range of exclusive tools and offers in the GitHub Student Developer Pack.

Understanding GitHub Student Discount Eligibility

To be eligible for the GitHub Student Developer Pack, you must be a student currently enrolled in a degree or diploma granting course of study. Both undergraduate and graduate students qualify.

You'll need to verify your student status with a valid school-issued email address, student ID card, or other official documentation. Once verified, you can access the pack benefits for free as long as you continue to meet the eligibility criteria.

The Verification Process for GitHub Education Access

Verifying your student status to access GitHub Education benefits is straightforward:

  • Sign up for a GitHub account if you don't already have one.
  • Go to the GitHub Education page and click "Get benefits".
  • Follow the step-by-step verification process by providing either your school-issued email address, student ID card, or other documentation.

Once verified, GitHub will automatically enroll you in the Student Developer Pack program. You'll gain access to all included benefits like free cloud resources, developer tools, and more.

Renewing Access to GitHub Student Pack Benefits

To continue receiving GitHub Student Developer Pack benefits, you'll need to reverify your eligibility every 12 months. GitHub will send you a reminder email when it's time to renew your access.

The reverification process only takes a minute:

  • Log in to your GitHub account
  • Navigate to your GitHub Education page
  • Click the "Reverify" button and follow the instructions

As long as you continue meeting the eligibility criteria as an actively enrolled student, you can keep renewing access annually.

The GitHub Global Campus serves as a central hub connecting students with open source projects, developer resources, campus programs, and more.

Within Campus, you can:

  • Find recommended open source projects to contribute to
  • Connect with other students in the GitHub community
  • Learn development skills through free online courses
  • Apply to GitHub Campus Experts and other student programs

Campus makes it easy to grow your skills and collaborate on impactful open source software - all alongside a global community of student developers.

Top Coding Tools for Students in the GitHub Pack

The GitHub Student Pack provides students with free access to developer tools and cloud services to help them build impressive projects and launch their careers. Let's explore some of the top coding tools available.

Leveraging GitHub Copilot for Student Developers

GitHub Copilot assists developers by suggesting line completions and entire function bodies as they write code. For students, Copilot can:

  • Suggest contextually relevant code snippets and solutions
  • Reduce time spent searching documentation
  • Learn preferred coding patterns and styles
  • Expand knowledge of APIs and best practices

By collaborating with Copilot in real-time, students can code more efficiently and expand their skills.

Maximizing Cloud Capabilities with Microsoft Azure for Students

The Student Pack includes a $100 credit for Microsoft Azure. With this, students can:

  • Get hands-on cloud development experience
  • Build and host web apps
  • Leverage services like machine learning and AI
  • Manage databases and storage
  • Scale applications as needed

These skills are highly valued and getting Azure experience early can pay dividends later.

Building with DigitalOcean's Cloud Infrastructure

DigitalOcean also offers $50 in platform credit for students. This allows building cloud-based apps using:

  • Virtual machines and compute capacity
  • Managed databases like MongoDB and Redis
  • CDNs, load balancers and firewalls
  • Integrations with GitHub and GitLab

Having experience deploying real infrastructure is invaluable for aspiring developers.

Securing Projects with 1Password for Students

With the 6 month 1Password Families subscription, students get:

  • Secure password generation and storage
  • Encrypted vaults for sensitive data
  • Easy authentication with biometrics
  • Peace of mind knowing logins are protected

Practicing good password hygiene early on ensures security best practices carry through a student's career.

Overall, the GitHub Student Pack accelerates learning by providing access to professional tools for free. Students should take full advantage during their studies.

Building and Showcasing Your Work with GitHub Student Resources

The GitHub Student Pack offers tools to build an impressive portfolio to demonstrate your skills to employers.

Creating a Professional Portfolio with GitHub Pages

GitHub Pages allows students to host static websites directly from a GitHub repository. This is a great way to showcase class projects, personal websites, portfolios, technical blogs and more. Here are some tips for getting started with GitHub Pages:

  • Create a new public repository in your GitHub account to host your website files
  • Enable GitHub Pages in your repository settings to publish your site
  • Use a Jekyll theme or bootstrap template to easily build a portfolio site
  • Customize the design by editing CSS and layout files
  • Add your projects by creating individual folders and markdown files
  • Insert images, GIFs and videos to showcase your work visually
  • Write project descriptions highlighting your contributions and skills gained
  • Link to live demos or source code to allow visitors to explore further

By dedicating time to crafting a polished portfolio with GitHub Pages, you can impress future employers with your work.

Personal Branding with a GitHub Student Free Domain

The GitHub Student Pack includes a free one-year domain from Namecheap. Applying your own custom domain to your GitHub Pages portfolio site can greatly improve your personal brand.

Benefits include:

  • Making your portfolio site look more professional
  • Creating a personalized online presence
  • Signaling your technical skills and web development knowledge
  • Allowing for easy distribution of your custom URL
  • Enabling consistent branding across your online profiles

To add a custom domain, simply follow Namecheap's domain configuration process after registering your free student domain. Then adjust your GitHub Pages settings to associate the new domain name.

Utilizing GitHub Community Exchange for Collaboration

GitHub Campus Experts facilitate a Community Exchange program where students can contribute to open source organizations outside their university. This allows you to:

  • Improve existing skills and learn new ones
  • Network with professional developers around the world
  • Contribute to impactful global software projects
  • Enhance your resume with real-world collaboration experience

Some popular open source organizations that accept student contributions via GitHub Community Exchange include TensorFlow, Pandas and Scikit-Learn.

Check if your university participates in the GitHub Campus Experts program. If so, apply to their Community Exchange initiative for exciting open source collaboration opportunities.

Advancing Your Education with GitHub Student Learning Tools

Complement your traditional studies with specialized tech learning platforms featured in the pack.

Interactive Learning with Educative.io Courses

The GitHub Student Developer Pack provides students with free access to Educative.io's interactive courses. These courses use in-browser coding environments and assessments to teach skills like Python, Java, Docker, and many more.

With hands-on coding practice and feedback right in the browser, Educative.io courses help students quickly gain practical skills. The courses also feature text, images, diagrams, and video lessons to provide context and explanations. Some key benefits of accessing Educative.io through the GitHub Student Pack include:

  • Learning in-demand skills with real coding environments
  • Practicing new skills with hands-on projects and assessments
  • Convenient access without any signup or payment required
  • Expanding your knowledge beyond traditional curriculums

By leveraging Educative.io's interactive courses, students can get a head start on building career-ready skills.

Skillshare Classes for Diverse Tech Skills

In addition to Educative.io, the GitHub Student Developer Pack grants access to Skillshare's extensive library of online classes. With over 25,000 classes covering dozens of topics, students can explore skills outside traditional tech curriculums.

Some examples of Skillshare's tech and coding classes included in the pack:

  • Web development with JavaScript, CSS, and HTML
  • Building apps and sites with React and Node.js
  • Creative coding with Processing and p5.js
  • Game development with Unity and C#
  • Machine learning fundamentals
  • Data science and visualization

With such a wide selection of classes, students can supplement their core studies and expand their skills. By accessing Skillshare through the GitHub Student Pack, they can explore new coding languages and frameworks risk-free.

Expanding Knowledge with StackSkills Unlimited

Along with Skillshare and Educative.io, the GitHub Student Developer Pack offers free access to StackSkills Unlimited. StackSkills has over 1,000 courses covering blockchain, cyber security, cloud computing, game development, and much more.

Key benefits of accessing StackSkills through the GitHub Student Pack:

  • Get unlimited access to all 1,000+ courses
  • Learn niche tech skills not offered in traditional programs
  • Download and save course resources for offline access
  • Build projects and earn certificates to showcase on your portfolio
  • Discover new career paths in emerging tech fields

For students looking to expand their knowledge, StackSkills Unlimited provides the means to explore coding skills far beyond what any curriculum offers.

Joining the GitHub Campus Experts Program

In addition to various learning platforms, students can also apply to the GitHub Campus Experts program through the Developer Pack. The Campus Experts program trains students leaders to build technical communities on campus.

As part of the program, Campus Experts get access to:

  • Technical and professional development funds
  • GitHub and industry events and conferences
  • Networking opportunities with tech leaders and experts
  • GitHub swag and gear

By becoming Campus Experts, students can hone technical and leadership abilities while acting as GitHub ambassadors on campus. They can use their role to advance open source culture and help peers skill up.

Conclusion

The GitHub Student Developer Pack provides tremendous value for students looking to accelerate their careers in software development. By unlocking access to popular commercial tools and cloud services, it eliminates financial barriers for students to build real-world projects and showcase their skills.

Some key benefits of the pack include:

  • Access to pro developer tools like Azure DevOps, DigitalOcean, and Namecheap to build robust applications
  • Valuable cloud resources through AWS Educate and Azure for Students credits
  • Ad-free access to developer training platforms like Educative to sharpen coding skills
  • Time-saving tools like GitHub Copilot to boost productivity
  • Career-building opportunities through GitHub Campus Programs to gain experience

With the ability to freely experiment with professional developer tools, students can build an impressive portfolio, learn in-demand skills, and position themselves for developer roles after graduation.

The GitHub Student Pack serves as a launchpad for the next generation of developers. Unlocking this treasure trove of resources helps students hit the ground running and set themselves up for success.