How To Become A Microsoft Student Partner (MSP)

5 min readNov 11, 2019

Important Notice:

This article is not up to date with the updates in the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador program. For those, please do visit: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/student-developer-blog/welcome-microsoft-learn-student-ambassadors/ba-p/1570828

The application procedure is still the same, however, and can be viewed here.

Introduction

The Microsoft Student Partner Program is a worldwide educational program to sponsor students majoring in disciplines related to technology. The MSP program attempts to enhance students’ employability by offering training in skills not usually taught in academia, including knowledge of Microsoft technologies.

Why be an MSP?

•The MSP program is an educational and promotional program to sponsor undergraduate and postgraduate students majoring in disciplines related to technology and computer science.

•As a whole, the program aims to increase awareness of Microsoft products, programs and initiatives. Consequently, the program helps expanding the user base of Microsoft products, and results in better availability of properly educated workforce in those technologies.

Benefits of being an MSP

Office 365 subscription
Visual Studio Enterprise (similar to MSDN subscription) along with Azure credits worth $150/month
LinkedIn Learning free for 6 months
Free training in Microsoft technologies via Microsoft Learn
Food and Beverage support in events through Subway
Networking opportunity with Microsoft officials
Chance to visit nearby Microsoft HQ for meetups or hackathons
Opportunity to be invited for annual regional MSP Summit

How To Apply To Become An MSP

Some of the steps shall be self-explanatory. However, I will provide extra information for each step wherever required.

Step 1

Go to studentpartners.microsoft.com

Step 2

After logging in with your Microsoft account, read the Privacy Policy.

Step 3

Fill in the Personal Info section

Step 4

Fill in the School Info section

Step 5

Fill in the Written Sample section

This is the most important section of the application as it will display your enthusiasm and passion as well as your communication and technical skills (to some extent) to the reviewers of the application. Fill it very carefully.

I will provide my own examples for ‘Teach’ and ‘Inspire’ to help you better understand the questions better. Please do note that these examples were accepted in the application for the 2019–20 session and may not work in the subsequent session. Also, please do not plagiarise the sample. Doing so shall be dealt with harshly by Microsoft.

Written sample for ‘Teach’

The topic I’ll be explaining here is linear search. So while explaining linear search, I like to use the example of searching for a certain page number in a small book. While searching for a certain page number, we do tend to start moving ahead from the first page, one by one, till we reach the specific page. The same concept is used in linear search. We use a loop with a counter starting from 1 and ending at the length of the array we are searching in. The counter is incremented by 1 at the end of each iteration. In each iteration, the data at the particular memory location (the counter being used as the index number) is compared with the data being searched for. We exit the loop once the data is found.

Video sample for ‘Inspire’

Step 6

Fill in the Additional Info section

This is the next most important section of the application after the Written Sample as it essentially acts as your résumé. Do not hesitate in providing as much information about your achievements and your contributions as you can.

Step 7

Fill in the Technical Skills section

The last box here, “Is there anything else you would like to share with us” is very useful when you have to update your application for any further achievements before it goes in for review. Do make use of it if you need to.

Selection Procedure

Once the application is filled and submitted, you can edit it until the time it goes under review.
Applications are open the whole year from 2019 and will be reviewed on a quarterly basis.

Student Partner Milestones

Once you do make it into the program, there are various tiers that you can achieve. Each tier has its own benefits. The tiers are:

Alpha 1- new Student Partners enter the program at Alpha 1 and receive exclusive access to our global student network and Microsoft experts on Microsoft Teams, an Office 365 subscription, access to Snag It and Camtasia software, and more.
Alpha 2- Student Partners who complete a Microsoft Learn path will unlock Azure credits with Visual Studio Enterprise subscription benefits.
Beta- Student Partners who complete the requirements for Alpha 2 and have hosted an event for other students in their community will earn the Beta badge to unlock event support and resource benefits. This could include an invitation to join the annual Microsoft Student Partner Summit!
Gold- select Student Partners who have gone above and beyond in earning their badges and serving their local community will be invited to the Gold milestone and can become Student Partner Program Regional Leaders, gain access to special events, and may even be invited to become a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP).

Conclusion

Thanks for going through this article. I hope it is of some help to you. The MSP Program is definitely an amazing program. It is nothing short of a privilege to be a part of the program.

If you do have any queries, do contact me at:

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