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Completing a Coursera Specialization for Free

Coursera provides continuing education just like Udacity and offer the full learning experience that I am accustomed to, including lesson videos, reading materials, projects, discussion forums, and graded projects which are peer-reviewed. I recently completed the Full-stack Web Development in React specialization from Coursera, all for free. It’s called a specialization because it is made up of three courses below each with their own certifications and which takes 4-6 weeks each to complete: 1. Front-End Web UI Frameworks and Tools: Bootstrap 4 2. Front-End Web Development with React 3. Server-side Development with NodeJS, Express and MongoDB I started the program in December 2021 and finished it in June 2023 however. The intent of this post is to explain how I was able to fund the entire specialization for free. In December 2021, I read on social media that Coursera allowed for one free course per year if you were a student and had an email address from a partner school. I gave my stu
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Completing a Coursera Specialization for Free

Coursera provides continuing education just like Udacity and offer the full learning experience that I am accustomed to, including lesson videos, reading materials, projects, discussion forums, and graded projects which are peer-reviewed. I recently completed the Full-stack Web Development in React specialization from Coursera, all for free. It’s called a specialization because it is made up of three courses below each with their own certifications and which takes 4-6 weeks each to complete:

1. Front-End Web UI Frameworks and Tools: Bootstrap 4

2. Front-End Web Development with React

3. Server-side Development with NodeJS, Express and MongoDB

I started the program in December 2021 and finished it in June 2023 however. The intent of this post is to explain how I was able to fund the entire specialization for free.

In December 2021, I read on social media that Coursera allowed for one free course per year if you were a student and had an email address from a partner school. I gave my student email address a try and was able to qualify to take the first of three classes in the specialization. I wasn’t sure if the offer reset at the beginning of each year so I tried to sign up for the second course in January 2022 but it didn’t work. I also learned that Coursera abolished the student accounts so waiting the 12 months for another free class wouldn’t have worked for me. I looked for financial aids instead.

By June 2022, I applied for financial aid which I read on social media was almost guaranteed to be awarded to anyone who applied. They were right. I explained in my application essay that I had many financial obligations and debts that I could t afford the $60/month subscription. It was somewhat true and therefore I sounded genuine in delivering the message. I finished the second class and immediately applied for aid for the last class using the same essay word for word. After waiting 15 days, I was again approved for aid and had an end date of June 2023 to complete the entire specialization because it was getting deprecated. The professor for the course also retired from teaching it.

I wish I did the ideation or special projects for the classes but I didn’t have time. The courses were worth it and I learned a lot from the course material but honestly I wouldn’t pay for the subscription. There are many opportunities like scholarships, or financial aids that you should be able to use before going through a paid subscription. If there is an interest, please comment below and I can post the essay I submitted to Coursera to help you craft your own when applying for the financial aid.

Here is my completed accomplishment, hope it encourages you to try and do the same


https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/specialization/FGVREXR4C6WM

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Location: Surrey, BC V3S 5L7, Canada

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