10 Reasons you should be an MSP.

That's 'Microsoft Student Partner', by the way.

1. Free trips to various places around the country, all expenses paid, to learn about new developments.

2. A few social trips every year - next one is free boat trip down the thames and then a nice hotel next month, for no apparent reason.

3. Free entry to conferences that are £400 to register for. Preferential treatment too so you can get in before they're fully booked.

4. Tons of free textbooks, t-shirts, mugs....etc

5. Looks awesome on your CV.

6. Lots of training and development support.

7. The MSP Mentor scheme - you get a MVP IT professional answering all your questions.

8. Free Zune, and lots of chances to get a 360 or various other things given away to you. Top 3 MSPs also get a nice trip to Europe.

9. Meet a bunch of cool people, and also find a bunch more people who are even more geeky than you.

10. Free MSDN subscription for a year. ie: Download any MS products you want free of charge for 12 months. Which will obviously be all of them. Includes professional licenses. Also, you get betas et cetera early, and during your year as an MSP you won't need to use up the MSDN subscription, as you get most things free anyhow.

Want to be one for next year? Send me an email (macgilli at aston dot ac dot youkay). Also, if you're interested in being an Student Representative, which also gets you some cool stuff and doesn't involve any work really, then let me know too.