Frequently asked questions

Actually free. A perk only earns a spot if a Carnegie Mellon student can get it without paying money — free software, transit, gear, library databases, grants, and more. Discounts do not qualify: a discount is still something you pay for. If part of something is free and part is paid, the listing leads with the free part and names the paid part.

Those are discount marketplaces — brands pay them to put deals in front of students, so the listings are advertising. This is the opposite: it lists things that are already free for you, nobody pays to be included, and there are no ads or affiliate links. Every entry is verified with a date so you can trust it.

No payment, ever, to get the core benefit. Conditions like showing your student ID, reserving ahead, or limited hours are fine — those are still free. Credits given to you (a free printing quota, a stipend, a grant) count too, because you receive them rather than pay them. Anything that needs a membership fee, a purchase, or a discounted-but-still-paid price does not.

Every entry shows a last-verified date in the open. A verification routine re-checks links and flags entries going stale, and a written rule set keeps not-free things and discounts out. Real-world perks still change, so if you spot something wrong, report it and it gets fixed.

Mostly currently enrolled Carnegie Mellon students — but many perks also cover faculty, staff, or alumni. Each listing has an eligibility tag, and the official page it links to is the final word. Check before you go.

No. This is an independent, student-built, open-source project — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an official site of Carnegie Mellon. Always confirm access details on the official pages each listing links to.

Please do — corrections are the point. Use the Submit page, or open an issue on the project's GitHub. The faster something wrong gets flagged, the more the whole list stays worth trusting.