[HACK] Getting Edu Email Address for Free in a Legit Way

suchan on 25/11/2024 - 19:53
Last edited 26/11/2024 - 12:08

Hey Ozb,

Thought I'd share a hack that might be helpful in scoring some useful deals.

Using this hack, you can possibly get an edu email address for free for lifetime.

Please note that this hack will only apply if you fit the following criteria:

  • You have graduated from one of the universities in Australia.
  • You have access to an alumni email address.

I have tried this with UNSW, I haven't tried it with other universities yet.

As a former student of UNSW, I can get access to a lifelong, unique UNSW email address. I have known about this for a long time, but didn't make use of it simply because it's domain is simply "@unswalumni.com". Not very useful for me and I never thought of using it at all.

But then, recently I began using Notion heavily to replace Evernote and I saw that Notion has free Education plan so I tried a hack. I tried sending an email to [email protected], e.g. [email protected] and voila, it worked!

I simply need to reverse engineer this by using Gmail's ability to "Send emails from a different address or alias".

So, now that I can send (and receive) email from a proper edu email address, I can easily sign up to StudentBeans, UniDays, Notion, Craft and other apps for their Education plan for free.

I just quickly googled UTS: theirs are probably even better? You get this email address by default [email protected], so basically no hack required.

  • Credit to @this is us for reminding me that you can setup an auto-forwarder that forwards everything from your alumni email to your personal then you don't have to worry about checking your alumni email.
  • See this comment from @Benoffie for other uni that might work: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/15981901/redir

Hope that helps.

Mods: Please remove if you think this isn't appropriate.

Education & Work

Comments

  • CyberMurning on 25/11/2024 - 20:07

    I just quickly googled UTS(uts.edu.au): theirs are probably even better? You get this email address by default [email protected], so basically no hack required.

    Wtf. Im ex uts. Will try now
    Edit. Probably need to call them to reset my password

  • capslock janitor on 25/11/2024 - 20:11
    +3
    • You have graduated from one of the universities in Australia.
    • You have access to an alumni email address.

    i struck out twice :\

  • SnowDragon on 25/11/2024 - 20:11
    -1

    Is signing up for a HECS free course and withdrawing before census not a legit way?

  • Pelicannn on 25/11/2024 - 20:25
    +1

    Graduated from USNW over 10 years ago and can’t remember my student ID. Rip.

    • MS Paint on 25/11/2024 - 20:37
      +24

      Pelican't

    • suchan on 25/11/2024 - 20:52
      +1

      maybe try emailing them MyIT and ask if they could help?

      I graduated over 15 years ago and my id is still fresh to this day lol.

    • AustriaBargain on 26/11/2024 - 00:46

      This is why I never delete notes, messages, or emails. Keeping them all for all time.

    • RMBC on 26/11/2024 - 10:55

      On your transcript?

  • scotty on 25/11/2024 - 20:30
    +1

    Graduated from UNSW more than 25 years ago and I can still remember my zID. Actually I last updated my unswalumni email address back in 2019, and now UNSW Identity Manager complains that my account does not exist.

    • suchan on 25/11/2024 - 20:57

      It also took me a couple tries before it lets me login. I can't remember the exact steps I took but I know it wasn't easy because I haven't accessed my unswalumni email since before 2019

      Maybe try this? https://www.unsw.edu.au/myit/services/account-access-email/e…

    • AustriaBargain on 26/11/2024 - 00:49

      Woah, always thought you were a little younger than that. I guess OZB has been around for a long time so it makes sense, and James Doohan was 46 during season 1.

  • CyberMurning on 25/11/2024 - 20:32
    -3

    @suchan. Im also planning to replace evernote but i feel notion is overkill for my need.

    • suchan on 25/11/2024 - 21:01

      having the ability to access all my notes from any device at all times without having to pay exorbitant price is Notion's best selling point.

      Evernote is just a moneygrub and bloated software by now.

      • CyberMurning on 25/11/2024 - 21:12

        Yes i dont want evernote im just still looking for beest alternative

        • Alley Cat on 26/11/2024 - 00:39

          Notion is perfect. How does it overkill? You only use what you need.

        • suchan on 26/11/2024 - 12:09

          a little confused if you say notion is overkill then evernote's worse, each to their own i guess.

          Google Keep? As simple as it gets i think lol

  • Benoffie on 25/11/2024 - 20:41
    +3

    All* (most) of the unis are like this. Having graduated from a few, their servers all route the student ID and fn.ln to the same mailbox.

    As student IDs are permanent identifiers and never get recycled, it technically lurks forever.

    Discovered this when I went back to work for an Alma Mater and my employee login was my old student ID. Umm ok, lazy much? 🤷‍♀️🤔🙄

    • suchan on 25/11/2024 - 21:02
      +1

      Nice to know that. Can you share which unis you graduated from and if the hack above applies to your uni? I will add it to my post, crediting you :)

      • Benoffie on 25/11/2024 - 21:45
        +1

        UniSA run this:

        If you completed a Bachelors, Masters or Doctorate from UniSA after the 1 Jan 2010 you will retain access to your student email for life.

        Also UNSW but you know that already 😉

        Adelaide did but I cant confirm under Alumni Benefits. I cant test as I have staff access. UoA auto redirects now from axxxxxxx@ to fn.ln@ if anyone wants to try.

        QUT?? Or one of those QLD unis does as a family member has been using the same email since I can remember (well over 20 years)

  • this is us on 25/11/2024 - 20:48

    Also, you can create a forwarding rule for all emails. I have one previous email address that is still forwarding emails to me after 5 years…

    • suchan on 25/11/2024 - 20:53

      Ah yes, I did that too when I first setup my alumni email address.
      Forwarded everything to my gmail account, will add to the hack

  • CodeXD on 25/11/2024 - 21:03

    Doesn't look like Monash University provides edu email address for Alumni

    Melbourne Uni does tho

    • Craze on 25/11/2024 - 21:52

      I'm Melb uni alumni and just created alumni e-mail address.

      Getting stuck with the reverse engineering step though- I don't actually have a username and password, so I can't get past the step for SMTP server?

      • CodeXD on 25/11/2024 - 21:59

        I haven't found a way to link previous student ID to a current alumni ID - I think you might need to contact their support to do it on your behalf.

        Check your alumni access
        Alumni access in your account will connect you to the full range of services and benefits available to you as a member of the alumni community. You should see an Alumni drop-down menu in your account’s top navigation bar. If you can’t access this, please contact our support team by filling out this form.

        In a FAQ I found

        How do I join the alumni community?

        If you obtained a Professional of Specialist Certificate prior to 2018, may not have been automatically included in the community. As you are now eligible, we invite you to sign up so that you can start enjoying the benefits that come with being part of the Melbourne alumni community.

        So alumni accounts are automatically created for those who obtained their degree 2018 or later. The sign up takes you to the exact same page as "Create your secure account here".

        The "reverse engineering" doesn't sound like it is required for this as Melb Uni will simply forward all emails to you once you have it set up.

        • Craze on 26/11/2024 - 12:01

          I will receive e-mails designated to the alumni e-mail address, but can't send from that e-mail as part of the "reverse engineering" setup.

          • CodeXD on 26/11/2024 - 12:07

            @Craze: That's a good point, but is there a need to send email from the .edu email address?

            I currently do not have access to .edu.au email but I assume to verify all the StudentBeans, UniDays, websites you just need access to the emails you are receiving. That is my primary objective in obtaining edu email address, for the discounts haha

            • Craze on 26/11/2024 - 13:59
              +1

              @CodeXD: Nah, it's more likely a "nice to have" vs must have.

              In Uni Melb's alumni portal they promote through this statement "Email forwarding gives you a permanent and prestigious alumni email address which you can use to stay in touch with your family, friends and colleagues."

              Not much use if it's only an e-mail forwarding service!

  • Clear on 25/11/2024 - 21:18

    I wish my Uni email still existed. The school of engineering had their own separate network to the rest of the University which meant we had our own email system. When the move to Microsoft 365 happened they were killed off, while the rest of the university got changed over.

  • JimmyF on 25/11/2024 - 21:32
    -3

    [HACK] Getting Edu Email Address for Free in a Legit Way

    'legit'…. Hmmm ok

  • hashtagbargain on 25/11/2024 - 22:05

    I was able to sign up to student beans using my UTS alumni account but not to uni days.

    • CyberMurning on 25/11/2024 - 22:32

      Did you go to here to login?
      login.uts.edu.au

      I cant reset my password

  • leiiv on 26/11/2024 - 00:05
    +1

    This is not a hack. Some if not most universities give free email address for a lifetime for the students/alumni. Not sure what's their policy on the dropouts.

    • suchan on 26/11/2024 - 12:13

      if you say so

  • AussieDaddy on 26/11/2024 - 00:29

    Graduated from Flinders uni years ago and thought they cancelled my email address a year after graduation. Is OP suggesting it's still active and I can still use it? Or it's different between unis?

  • happydude on 26/11/2024 - 01:11

    I was told at my graduation ceremony that we would now get to keep our graduate email address for life.

    Less than a year later they killed it.

    • kiitos on 26/11/2024 - 12:59

      For the life of their mail server

  • mantra on 26/11/2024 - 03:28

    setup email forwarding from my tafe email back in 2013
    couldnt access my account but forwarding worked until 2018

  • Breddo on 26/11/2024 - 08:55

    As someone that worked in IT at a big uni I’m not sure how long this will work for. It’s not free for them to offer email for life and a number of unis are either reviewing this or killing it

    • Benoffie on 26/11/2024 - 09:04

      Yes, I suspect UoAs Alum emails got killed off under the same efficiency review.

      However, after the merger, who knows. They might be back or UniSA might lose theirs too.

    • suchan on 26/11/2024 - 12:11

      good to know. I'll milk it for as long as I can though :p

  • kiitos on 26/11/2024 - 13:01

    Are you saying this would work for discounts in edu stores? I had imagined they would check that you're a current student before shipping your order?

  • AdamFury on 26/11/2024 - 14:13

    University of Newcastle had this in place also. I graduated 2019 and my email was finally deactivated a few months ago.

  • md333 on 26/11/2024 - 15:50

    University of WA used to offer a free alumni email address. It was already alumni.uwa.edu.au so worked for student offers. Unfortunately the 'lifetime' referred to was not the lifetime of the student and they discontinued it. Now I can't get support for my drone because It is not possible to update the email address on a dji account.

  • CandyMan on 26/11/2024 - 16:38

    I didn’t read all the comments. If it hasn’t been mentioned, you retain your UTAS edu email for life.

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