Namecheap, a highly popular and well-known domain registrar and web-hosting company, has just launched a great service to provide free .me domains to students. Under this initiative, dubbed as Namecheap for Education, students of some selected universities in the US, Canada and UK can score a .me domain absolutely free, in order to expand their online presence. Apart from that, they’ll also get a custom email address with free email hosting. But that’s not all. Along with these goodies, the students can also choose to have either a premium about.me service (good for 1 year), or a GitHub project page. The service is totally free (as in free beer!) and there are no catches. The only requirement is that you have to be a student of one of the universities included in the program. Sounds exciting? Let’s hop in past the break, and find out in a bit more detail.
How to get a free .me domain (and other goodies) under the Namecheap for Education initiative?
As mentioned before, scoring a free .me domain with custom email address and hosting (and one of the two bonuses) from Namecheap is super easy. You just have to be a student of one of the universities included in the initiative (which essentially means that you must have an official university email address).
Here’s how to get started and grab yourself a free .me domain:
Step 1: Head over to the Namecheap for Education program’s homepage. Once there, use the search bar to find out whether the domain (with TLD .me) you want to register is available or not.
If the domain you’ve selected is available, it’ll be automatically added to your cart. The custom email address with free email hosting would also be automatically added to the cart. Hit on the Complete Order button.
Step 2: As a final step, you’ll be directed to the Order Summary page. Here, you can choose one of the two bonus items (premium about.me setup or GitHub project pages). To complete your order, enter the official university email address in the student email section at the bottom, and hit the Finish Up button.
That’s it, fellas! Once the order is completed, you’ll receive further instructions on the official university email address entered by you. Pretty simple, don’t you think?
List of Universities included in the Namecheap for Education initiative
As of now, these are the universities that I am aware of, for which NameCheap is offering free .me domain names:
- Carnegie Mellon University
- University of Waterloo
- Stanford University
- University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- State University of New York, Stony Brook
- University of Illinois
- University of California, Berkeley
- Sauder School of Business
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Rochester Institute of Technology
- Cornell University
- University of Texas at Austin
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Purdue University
- John Hopkins University
- New York University
- University of California, Davis
- University of California, Riverside
- Harvard University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Frostburg State University
- University of Washington
- University of Chicago
- McGill University
Conclusion
Namecheap for Education is a really commendable initiative by Namecheap, one of the most popular domain registrar and web-hosting companies out there. By giving the students an opportunity to get a free domain along with extras such as a custom email address, it will provide them with a simple yet effective way to reach out to prospective recruiters, and showcase their academic skills, thus benefitting them in the long run. After all, in today’s digital age, the more active you’re online (that doesn’t include posting status updates and selfies), the better your chances are.
