DreamSpark: How to get Verified for the Microsoft Dreamspark software in US?

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All Students at all accredited higher education institutions in US are eligible for DreamSpark at  https://www.dreamspark.com. There is no specific work necessary on the school's part to 'enroll'.

Given that there is No single method of verifying a student status across all higher-ed institutions in the US, there are a number of mechanism that DreamSpark uses:

  1. For Universities that are in the InCommon federation and implement the Shibboleth protocol, the verification is done by the school
  2. For students who are members of 'International Student Identity Card (ISIC)
    • student submits their name and ISIC ID #
  3. National Students Clearing house verification
    • Student submits their name, school name and DOB
  4. manual verification
    • student submits their name, email and student ID/Tuition receipt

Even though not all schools are listed on the DreamSpark site, all higher-ed students from all US  schools use the mechanisms 2,3,4 listed above to get their DreamSpark software.

On the DreamSpark site (at https://www.dreamspark.com/wayf/wayf.aspx) just below the list of schools is the following -- click on the “Learn More” button to get verified through JourneyEd https://www.journeyed.com/MSTools.

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So, No your school does not have to be listed on the DreamSpark site for a higher-ed student in US to get the DreamSpark software just click on the “Learn More” button  it to get verified as a student.

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