How To Make Money As A College Student – 47 Awesome And Practical Ways
If you’re planning to go off to college soon, then you may have heard about how college students are always looking for ways to make money in college to pay off their student loans.
Most college students earn money by delivering pizza or taking on a part-time job as a salesperson in a local retail store.
The truth is, there are tons of ways you can make extra cash while studying in college, so your options are not limited.
In this post, I will tell you how to make money as a college student in 51 different ways!
I hope you’re excited!
Let’s dive in!
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1. Become a Teaching Assistant
You may have seen a Teaching Assistant helping your Professor during some of your classes at college. But, did you know that some teachers and professors hire students to be their teaching assistants?
Although this is not one of those student jobs that will make you serious money, becoming a teaching assistant can help you in your future career.
The job of a teaching assistant is usually to assist professors during the class, help grade papers, or even clear students’ doubts and help them with their assignments.
If you’re at the Ph.D. level, you may even be asked to take a few classes on your own.
Sometimes teaching assistant positions are advertised on on-campus job portals. Otherwise, you can try contacting professors directly and tell them that you’re interested in applying to be their teaching assistant.
2. Become a Research Assistant
A research assistant is someone who helps professors depending on which subject or department you want to work with. If you choose to work in a Science lab, you may be required to set up experiments in the lab, collect samples, or clean and calibrate equipment.
On the other hand, if you work in an Arts or Social Science department, you may be asked to gather information from library books and compile them into documents.
If you are not comfortable working with college students directly, you could apply for a research assistant position and earn an extra few dollars on a flexible schedule.
Most college students learn more about the real world by assisting professors in their work than by just listening to lectures.
3. Become a Resident Assistant
A resident assistant is someone who lives on the college campus and helps college students navigate through their campus life.
As a college student, becoming a resident assistant is no easy task, but if you get the job, you’ll learn a lot in terms of people management, communication, conflict resolution, and decision-making while you make money in college.
Becoming a resident assistant also gives you visibility among your peers and professors, thus giving you the chance to obtain glowing letters of recommendation for your future career.
Some colleges pay resident assistants a stipend every month, but others offer you free or discounted housing. Although it’s not a lucrative way to earn money, it could help you financially.
4. Become a Host For Prospective Students
Some colleges offer prospective students the chance to experience college life first-hand by staying on campus for a few days.
This is a great way for you to make some extra cash hosting prospective college students and showing them around campus. If you are a people person and have a friendly attitude, it won’t be difficult for you to get the chance to host fellow students and earn extra money.
5. Be a Campus Tutor For Fellow Students
If you are good at tutoring younger students, you could offer your tutoring services by joining an on-campus tutoring center.
Becoming a campus tutor is one of the best ways to make money in your free time at college. Although you may not be able to make good money tutoring, you could pay off part of your student loans or just make some extra spending money.
Most colleges hire college students with a good academic record to tutor other students on campus.
Another way of making money by tutoring is to freelance as a tutor for college students.
6. Look For Part-Time Jobs On-Campus Job Boards
A great way for college students to make money in college is to look for part-time jobs on their college job boards.
College job boards post jobs in various departments such as campus maintenance, campus dining, campus transportation, dormitory front desk, campus IT, campus recreation or fitness center, or campus library.
As a college student, you can find many ways to make money by looking through these job boards.
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7. Make Money In College By Becoming a Brand Ambassador
You can make money by promoting big brands on your college campus. If you love a particular brand or product, you could reach out to them to ask them if they would like to hire you to promote them on campus.
Becoming a brand ambassador can teach you business and marketing skills, communication skills, and networking skills, which you can use in your future career.
Consider marketing your favorite brands to make money in college and pay off your student loans.
8. Drive for Uber or Lyft
If you own a car, you could consider taking up a part-time job as a driver with Uber or Lyft. With this kind of job, you can have a very flexible schedule and only drive on your time off.
You will need to have a license, undergo a background check, and have a qualifying vehicle if you want to make money in college as an Uber/ Lyft driver.
9. Join an On-Demand Delivery Service
These days there are tons of delivery apps that people use to get things delivered to them. You could consider joining apps like InstaCart, DoorDask, or PostMates to earn some extra spending money by delivering things between college campuses or in your college town.
10. Work At a Bar or Coffee Shop
If you like hanging out at your local bar or coffee shop, it would be worth checking out if they could use an extra hand. Some bars and cafes advertise their open roles, but not all of them do.
Walk into the place and ask the manager if they are interested in hiring extra help. Working at these places is one of the ways to make money in college and save up to pay off your student loans.
11. Get a Bookkeeping Job
If you like accounting, have experience or are willing to learn accounting, you could get a bookkeeping job at a local business.
Most businesses have their hands full with other tasks and would like to pay someone to take care of their accounts. You could charge them by the hour and take on as many clients as you like depending on how much spare time you have on your hands.
12. Apply For an Internship
Most college students intern at local businesses in their free time. Not only will this earn you some money, but it will also look great on your resume.
All you need to do is create a polished resume, look for companies offering internships in your industry, and apply for them online.
A paid (or sometimes unpaid) internship will help you gain relevant skills and build connections in your field. This will help you immensely as you finish college and progress in your career.
13. Paint Houses
You could help people paint their houses if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty. People would love for someone to do this for them, so it’s a great way to earn some extra spending money.
You could choose to do this on your own as a freelancer. Or, if you do not want to invest in painting supplies and a ladder, you could choose to join a painting company.
14. Buy and Sell Used Books
It may seem like a seasonal business, but you could sell your old textbooks at the end of your semester to make a little money.
You could even buy old textbooks from your seniors or shops that buy and sell used books to save money on your textbooks.
There are also companies that buy back used books at a higher rate than most bookstores. Look for these companies and consider selling to them.
15. Fix Cars and Bikes
Another way you can make some cash in college is by fixing cars and bikes. If you know how to do basic car or bike repair work or servicing, you could make a decent income out of it in your spare time.
Look for jobs at your local mechanic or consider doing it on your own if you have a good enough knowledge about vehicles.
16. Start a Babysitting Business
Babysitting for your college professors or for other people is a perfect way to make a side income if you are good with babies and kids.
Babysitting pays well, especially if you build a strong enough reputation and have lots of contacts. You could also go through sites like care.com to find babysitting gigs.
17. Work in Retail
You could find yourself a retail job if you are willing to work nights and weekends. Retail shops are usually always looking for help in their sales and customer service departments.
Apart from the monthly pay, retail shops usually offer special employee discounts which you can avail of. These discounts can help you save some money too.
18. Help Out At Daycares or Elementary Schools
Daycares and elementary schools usually have openings for people who could help take care of kids till their parents or caretakers pick them up from school.
You could also lend a hand with the kids’ homework and crafts or other activities if the school has an after-school program.
19. Flip Cars and Bikes To Make Extra Cash
If you are good at sales and fixing up vehicles, you could use your skills to buy used cars and bikes, fix them up, and sell them for a better price.
However, you need to be sure you know what you are doing so that the vehicles are not dangerous on the road.
20. Sell Things Online
Speaking of selling, you could try your hand at selling things online in places like Craigslist, Amazon FBA, and Facebook MarketPlace.
Look for great deals on items like clothing, electronics, furniture, or books and buy them online. You could also look for items in discount stores or flea markets.
If you have an eye for recognizing undervalued and sell them for a profit on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. If you do it right, you can make a decent side income from this.
Recommended Reading:
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21. Become a Freelancer
Although freelancing is a very broad term, I’ve included this in the list so that you know this is one option for you to earn money on the side.
If you are interested in writing, graphic design, organizing travel, managing social media pages, or waiting emails, you could sell your services as a freelancer to clients.
Start a website or a blog, stay active on social media, and market your skills to attract clients. The best part about freelancing is that you can do it from wherever you want and whenever you want.
You can take on as many or as few clients as you want and offer them your services.
22. Become a Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant is someone who helps people with answering emails, scheduling meetings, booking appointments, and administrative tasks. It doesn’t take much to become a virtual assistant. All you need is a professional attitude and the ability to get tasks done on time.
There are many businesses that would rather pay someone to take care of mundane activities than spend time doing it themselves. You can earn extra money and work on your own schedule as a freelance virtual assistant.
23. Launch An Online Course
If you have a skill that you can teach others, you could launch and sell an online course. Online course creation is not as complicated as it sounds.
There are many course creation platforms like Udemy, Skillshare, Teachable, and Kajabi that can help you impart your knowledge to others and make a passive income while doing so.
It can be challenging to find students to take your course. A course creation platform can help you find paying students, but they will charge you a percentage of every course sale.
Course creation has proven to be extremely lucrative, especially in recent years with remote learning on the rise.
Recommended Reading:
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24. Help People Move
If you are able to move around, pick up heavy stuff, and drive, you could help people who are planning to change houses.
You could charge people by the hour for your services, and help people pack their belongings and move to their new home. Although you may not make bucket loads of money doing this, you can easily make minimum wage.
Post an ad online, on social media, or hand out flyers to advertise your services.
25. Earn Money Mowing People’s Lawns
Another way you can earn financial aid is by mowing people’s lawns and helping with their gardening.
If you own some yard tools and have a green thumb, you can help people by cutting their grass or trimming their bushes.
People are busy, and will gladly pay someone who can come take care of their lawn and gardening.
26. Start a Laundry Service
You can make cash by doing people’s laundry!
Believe it or not, people will pay to get their laundry done if it will save them some time. If you know how to wash different types of garments, iron them and fold them neatly, you can sell your services to busy office goers or even new college students.
27. Clean Houses
Cleaning people’s houses is one of the easiest ways to make money in college. You can charge by the hour to sweep and mop floors, clean kitchens, and scrub bathroom tiles.
Of course, this kind of job may not be for everyone, but if you don’t mind stocking up on cleaning supplies and getting your hands dirty, then you can easily make extra money cleaning houses.
28. Start a Pet Sitting/ Dog Walking Business
If you love pets, then it’s easy to say that starting a dog walking or pet sitting business may be right up your alley.
People will pay you to feed their pets, wash and groom them, and walk them every day. They may even want you to stay at their house if they are vacationing or traveling for work.
Pet sitting is a great way to earn extra money and pay towards your student loans.
29. Sell Stuff on Etsy
There’s a ton of stuff that you can make and sell on Etsy. You can make physical stuff that you can ship to your customers. You can also create digital products like PDFs, templates, and printables that people can download once they’ve paid you.
30. Become a Street Performer
If you have a certain talent that you can perform in front of an audience, you can become a street performer. You won’t be able to make a ton of money doing this, but it is a fun way to earn some extra money while you are in college.
You can perform anything from dance, playing a musical instrument, singing, juggling, performing special physical feats, creating caricatures of people, or even doing comical routines.
31. Sell Your Class Notes To College Students
Are you great at making notes for your classes? Then why not sell your notes to other college students for extra money?
Selling notes is one of the best ways to make money by helping fellow college students. There are even sites like StudySoup that pay you for taking notes in class.
32. Become a Personal Trainer
If getting fit is your idea of fun, then you’ll be a great personal trainer. People are looking for ways to eat healthily and work out better, and as a personal trainer, you can help them achieve that.
You could choose to get certified as a personal trainer, as this will increase your credibility and help you get more clients.
33. Earn Money By DJing
DJing is another great way to make extra money while studying. If you love parties and music, then you can work as a DJ for colleges, high school proms, and other events like weddings.
People pay well for DJs, and you get to have some fun while you make money in college!
34. Become a Voiceover Artist
You could learn how to become a voiceover artist and sell your services to authors who want their books to be converted to audiobooks. You could also invest in a good microphone and headphones and turn your room into a recording studio!
35. Become a Social Media Manager
If you love posting on social media and handling different social media accounts, then you could become a social media manager.
A social media manager handles the social media handles of different clients by posting on them regularly, managing the comments section, and making sure the social media accounts reflect the brand’s image.
You could also sell your services as a social media consultant by teaching companies how to use social media platforms to market themselves.
36. Become a Content Creator
A content creator is someone who creates educational or entertaining content for an audience. This could be either in the form of blog posts, videos, or any other form of media.
You could choose to start a blog, create a YouTube channel, or become a social media influencer and create content that a target audience would consume on a regular basis.
As a content creator, you will have to create your own marketing materials and create a name for yourself by building trust and authority with your niche audience.
37. Become a Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is someone who writes under someone else’s name. People hire ghostwriters to write blog posts, books, and other written work on their behalf because they do not have the time [or the writing skills t do it themselves.
If you have good writing skills and would like to use those skills to earn some money, then ghostwriting is worth a try. You can easily find ghostwriter jobs on freelance job portals like Fiverr, or directly reach out to clients offering your services.
38. Take On Simple Tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk
Amazon Mechanical Turk helps businesses find people to complete simple tasks that cannot be done by artificial intelligence. You could look for tasks to complete on Amazon Mechanical Turk and earn some money while you are in college.
Tasks include simple data de-duplication, identifying objects in a photo or video, transcribing audio recordings, or carrying out simple research.
39. Make Money On CashBack Apps
If you are used to buying things online, you can use cashback apps to get instant cashback on purchases you make every day.
Cashback apps like Ibotta, Swagbucks, and Fetch Rewards offer users cashback if they make online purchases through the app. You can use these apps to save money on your daily expenses.
40. Take Surveys on Survey Apps
Companies use survey apps to collect information from users for market research studies. These survey apps offer cash rewards or gift cards to users who take their surveys online.
If you have some spare time on your hands, you could try taking surveys on apps like Survey Junkie, Branded Research, or Pinecone Research to earn money while in college.
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41. Deliver Groceries
If you have a car or bike and are willing to drive around to earn some money, then you might want to consider delivering groceries to earn little extra spending money.
Instacart is one such platform you could use to deliver groceries to people in your free time. Requirements are usually a driver’s license and a mode of transportation such as a bike or car to deliver the groceries.
42. Start a Money-Making Blog
One of the best ways to earn money online is to start a blog and then monetize it. Figure out a topic you are passionate about, are experienced or skilled at, and that has the potential to make you some money online.
Set up a website, create blog content, and publish regularly. Once you start getting steady traffic to your blog, you can monetize it by displaying ads, adding affiliate links, or by selling your own products on your blog!
For example, if you start a personal finance blog, you can write articles teaching people how to manage their personal finances. A blog is a great way to make passive income.
Recommended Reading:
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AFFILIATE MARKETING FOR DUMMIES: 7 STEPS TO HELP YOU LAUNCH YOUR AFFILIATE WEBSITE!
43. Become a Freelance Writer
Another way you can earn money with your writing skills is through freelance writing. A freelance writer sells his or her writing skills by writing blogs, email copy, social media posts, or other written copy.
Freelance writing is a good way to earn money in your free time doing something you enjoy. You can choose to niche down to writing in a particular niche so that you can gain more high-paying clients for your freelance writing business.
You can search for freelance writing jobs on job boards like UpWork or Fiverr, or sell your services directly to clients by starting your own blog and marketing yourself to your target audience.
44. Design and Sell T-Shirts
Do you like designing stuff, then you’ll enjoy designing and selling stuff online with sites like TeeSpring. TeeSpring lets you create and sell t-shirts without having to deal with printing and keeping stock.
Just design your t-shirt, phone case, or leggings and TeeSpring will tell you the base price of the item. Decide what profit you want to make and that will determine the final selling price of the item.
45. Start a House Sitting Business
House Sitting is an easy way to make money in college. All you have to do is stay at someone’s place when they go out of town, or just keep a regular watch on the house while they are away.
There are a lot of people who would love to hire college students to take care of their house pets or water their house plants while they are traveling.
There are many places where people post these kinds of jobs like on Facebook or Craigslist, or on sites like housesitter.com.
House sitting is a great way to make more money while in college. You can even use the time to do your assignments outside your dorm room.
46. Get a Data Entry Job
Another simple way graduate students can make money to pay off their student loan debt is to get a data entry job.
Data entry is a fairly simple job usually involving the input of data into a spreadsheet, document, or website. You can find such data entry jobs on Fiverr or Upwork.
Data entry jobs require minimal effort, and you can usually take up as much or as little work as you can depending on how much time you have on your hands.
47. Become a Waiter or Delivery Driver For a Local Restaurant
Many college students look for an off-campus job at local restaurants to make a few extra bucks. Most restaurants are looking for waiters or for someone who can deliver food to their customers.
If you are a broke college student and have a fair knowledge of proper food handling, you can land a part-time job at a restaurant kitchen preparing food.
Conclusion
There are tons of opportunities for college students to make some extra money while studying – it all depends on your skills and ability to look for these jobs.
Earning money while you study can help you a lot in terms of saving money and paying off your student loans.
What kind of jobs are you currently working during your college years? Leave a comment below and let us know!
Also, please share this post with your friends if you found it useful! 🙂
