Broke college students love making extra money like a fat kid loves cake. I speak from personal experience, and, by the way, skinny kids love cake too. Like many other college students, my bank account ran closer to empty than full throughout my college and grad school years, but I still wanted to have fun without digging myself into a bigger hole.
There are tons of ways to make extra money, but most college students are simply too lazy to take advantage of them. Fortunately, I’ve put together this list of 5 easy ways for college students to make extra money during the school year. There should be something for every type of college student, from lazy to ambitious, on this list.
1. Open a high-yield savings account
This is by far the easiest (and laziest) way to make extra money. All you have to do is open a high-yield savings account, put your money in it, and wait. Each month you’ll earn some extra cash based on your balance. The catch is that you need some money to put into the account in the first place.
If you get a student loan refund, a high-yield savings account is a great place to put that cash. Why let it sit dormant in a checking account when it can be earning you some extra money in a high-yield savings account? You can also get a $25 bonus from ING Direct when you open an account with at least a $250 initial deposit.
2. Get a part-time job
Enough of the laziness, most college students have lots of free time (even more if you skip class). Whether you want to admit it or not, there’s no excuse for not getting a part-time job while you’re in school. Get an on-campus job at a computer lab if you want a low-key, low stress job where you’ll get paid to do your homework … I mean, supervise the computer lab.
During my last two years of undergrad, I had a part-time job, took a full course load, was in a serious relationship, and still managed to graduate with honors. Of course, even though that worked for me, it may not work for you. The key is find a part-time job that allows you to balance school with work and still leaves you with enough time to hang out with your friends.
3. Sell something you don’t need
Used textbooks, CDs, DVDs, video games, iPods, and anything else you might find on eBay. Chances are every college student has at least one thing they don’t need anymore, so sell it for some extra cash. If you want to avoid the hassle of shipping your items, then sell locally by posting your items on the Facebook Marketplace.
4. Make money online
Everyone has probably seen one of those cheesy infomercials about how easy it is to make money online these days. Well, they’re partially true. You can make some extra money online, and it’s pretty easy. However, it’s not going to turn you into a millionaire overnight (or in a week or in a month). If you put enough effort into it though, you may be able to pay back your student loans with the money you make online. Here is a small sample of the many opportunities out there:
- Complete offers at CashCrate. I’ve made over $350 through CashCrate since joining.
- Write articles for Associated Content and earn money based on the performance of your articles.
- Make videos, post them on Revver, and get a cut of the ad revenue.
5. Do freelance work
House sitting, pet sitting, tennis lessons, commissioned art works, tutoring, web design, knitting, computer repair, or whatever else you’re good at doing. The beauty of freelance work is that you have the opportunity to do something that you really enjoy, and you get paid for it. The biggest challenge is finding these opportunities (a.k.a. tricking people into paying you to do stuff that’s actually fun).
Networking is your best friend when it comes to freelance work. One of your professors may need someone to house/pet sit while they’re out of town. A friend of a friend may know someone that wants a website. That’s exactly how I ended up getting paid to put together a wedding website for a grad student during my undergrad years.
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Thanks for the tips, I should have taken advantage of some of those when I was in college, and am trying to convince my younger brothers who are in college to take advantage of the free time they have to make some extra money.
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
Some additions to #4.
Revenue sharing sites like http://www.flixya.com and Hubpages.com are great ways to generate Google Adsense revenue without needing to host a website. Also great that they have done the hardwork for users to enjoy the benefits. Not sure how Flixya makes money, but they pay 100% of the ad revenue to users.
I have heard that there are some issues with Revver lately, so not sure its worth posting videos there. Check out: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/01/is-revver-on-the-fritz/ (read the comments…doesnt look good)
Anyway, good post.
-Roger
I’m going to forward your article to my college student son. Any way he can make some money is a good thing!
are there any suggestions for hs students?
You know, since I’ve found this site I’ve been referring all my college-aged clients over here. I live in Austin, so I’ve got several colleges in my vicinity. Hopefully these kids will take a look and find some useful information.
Something else to add to this list is participating in medical trials. Some college students may find them fairly lucrative and a quiet place to get some studying done. The downside is that some may require overnight stays, but if you don’t mind that and being a bit of a guinea pig, it could be an option to help offset the costs of college. A friend from high school did this all of her freshman year and really saved up quite a bit of money.
Kristy: Thanks. I’m glad that you find this site useful enough to refer your clients here. Getting feedback like that motivates me to keep writing useful (and entertaining) content.
Participating in medical trials is a great addition to the list. Throughout college and grad school, there were always ads for medical trials in the school paper, and they paid really well if you qualfied for them.
These are great tips!
Thanks,
Nate
Excellent suggestions- and who DOESN’T love cake??
I am an adult who decided to go back to school at the age of 35 . I am already working a full time job and going to school 3 nights a week. Any suggestions for me on ways to make some extra (much needed) cash?
I’m a current undergraduate student at a big research university, and similar to medical trials I try to participate in studies in the psychology department. They tend to pay about $20 for an hour-long study right there on campus (that usually lasts only 45mins) and usually involve sitting at a computer and answering questions — painless! A friend of mine does similar studies for our graduate business school, which is too far away from my classes for me to go to, but I think they pay the same way. These pay less than medical trials, but more people qualify, they are super easy, and take very little time.
Does anyone know what I can do to make extra money in my area that can involve my kids? I am not looking for online surveys, secret shopper, or scams. Just fun things we can do to make extra money together as a family.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can make a little extra money (or a lot!) at home until I find a full time job? I am not talking about investment opportunities or the like. If I had money to invest, I wouldn’t be looking for a way to make money.
Nice site, i wrote a little blog on how to make money online using cashcrate. Lets link up!
http://cashcrategenuis.blogspot.com/
The best thing I did was open an Ameritrade account and start trading/learning about the stock market.
Instead of making $9/hr at the library, I educated myself in the stock market and traded. I made a lot, and LOST a lot, but the education was invaluable.
If it wasn’t for messing around in the market, I would never be making the money I’m making now.
Learn about the markets!
I think that would be fun and expensive. Believe me when I tell you that the entire hen weekend/bachelor/bachelorette party is overrated. It is a lot of money and is not that great.
Unfortunately, when your an international college student you cant get a part time job and cash crate needs a credit card for a lot of them
Thanks for sharing that post about money for students. I just took a quick look at it and it does seem like a viable option for someone needing a quick paying part time job they can do online.Proofreading is another excellent way to make money online without needing much time or specific expertise.
A simple way is to make $20-$50 today, and $50-$200 within a day or two.
The greatest benefit of this program is that you make money online in a timely manner. Most people online search for ways to make money quick or instant. As a lot of people approach the internet in a time when they are quite desperate
But this time, I would like to help the people that aren’t so smart with blogging and aren’t so keen on writing for money. In fact. If I would look at the figure of 97% of all internet bloggers that fail online, it would appear that most people are gross when it comes to blogging! http://100kblogging.com/?hop=chrisd10
Give it a try!
I always thought that site flipping was a good option for college students. That is buying and selling profitable websites.
Instead of making $9/hr at the library, I educated myself in the stock market and traded. I made a lot, and LOST a lot, but the education was invaluable.
I just took a quick look at it and it does seem like a viable option for someone needing a quick paying part time job they can do online.
Definitely a very good blog post. My blog is about working from home and I’m going to link to your post because its a good list not just for college kids but for just about anyone that would like to work from home and are tired of all of those “work at home” scams.
I like the make money online thing the best. I think that has to work out the best for all students as they can set their own schedule etc.. People do it all the time!
Thank you so much for passing the article along, that is awesome! I hope it helps! I remember college being tough as far as money goes, maybe it won’t have to be for them.
Just wanted to throw this out there: another good way to earn some money during your spare time is to become a ChaCha guide at chacha.com. All you have to do is pass a readiness test. You can log in whenever you want. I’ve only been doing it a week and I’ve already made close to $70. Its a lot of fun and perfect for college students since you can answer questions in between classes and stuff.
Hope this helps someone. If you decide to join use holygirl135@aol.com as your referral email to join my team!
To call up and cancel your account, do you need to live in the US?
Nice list. I give away a free report on my site also listing great ways for college students to make money. There are plenty of ways to make money in college, but the hard part is doing it without interfering with your classes. Good luck to everyone trying to scrap some extra cash together during college.
comments are really helpful and informative .. thank you
site is great thanks
Most people online search for ways to make money quick or instant. As a lot of people approach the internet in a time when they are quite desperate
If the college student can do it, then its definitely something huge for them, but I think most college students choose to party instead of being pro-active about their life outside of the classroom.
Till then,
Jean
This is the most obvious choice, but there are so many opportunities to make money on Ebay. Find a niche that works for you or sell old stuff around the house….
Write, market, advertise, and finally money. This how’s the MMO “make money online” basic works.
I sell UK and EU and US dumps. My dumps are available with the pin and without the pin but with the pin it will cost extra.
One dump = £50
One dump + pin = £100
I also sell mswr 206 credit card reader/writer for £200, which will include serial usb port, power adapter, cd software and 20 blank cards.
Contact me on skimanddump@live.co.uk
Those are helpful ideas my friend. Wish me all the best because I’m gonna apply some of those you shared with us. Cheers!
Good ways to make extra money but it requires passion as well as hardwork.