How to Make Money While in College Full-Time

College: A Harsh Realization

College kids are notorious for being broke. Really, though, why is no surprise: not only are these children forced to funnel thousands of dollars into their education, most of which do not even have that allowance in the bank, but classes themselves are normally so time-consuming that they hardly have any spare time to work. Summer jobs are a thing of the past as soon as their term begins, and time suddenly becomes precious.

But, being in college also means that you need some kind of money flowing into your bank account on a regular, or semi-regular, basis. College is a time where kids are beginning to become adults, and this is most prominently seen by the sudden cut-off from their parent’s paychecks. Long gone are the days where their mother brings home groceries, does their laundry, and cleans their room — now, children are expected to do all that, and more, themselves.

However, most college kids — myself included, at the time — are absolutely shocked by how much all of their necessities actually cost. Laundry alone can cost up to five dollars a week, depending on how well your dryer dries your clothes and how often you actually get around to doing it. Groceries, too, can run your bank account dry, especially those of whom suddenly relocate to a city from a suburb or a small town.

Toto, we’re not in our parent’s house anymore!

How Much Money do we Really Need?

Realistically, a college kid doesn’t need as much money as he thinks he does.

Most schools, up until their junior year or so, offer student housing that gets billed to the total tuition cost, so rent is covered by their parents, their student loans, or some unknown third party (like a trust fund or winning the lottery). Food, too, is often covered by the school in the form of a dining hall or a snack shop that is paid, again, through the tuition. They hardly need to clean — there are cleaning staff for that — and all utilities are covered by the school.

So, while college kids are essentially playing adult, they have yet to learn the complexities and hardship of paying for an absurd utility bill.

However, there are many reasons that a college kid does need money, including:

1. CLOTHES AND SHOES — both of which, up until recently, had been covered by the parents.
2. SNACKS — aside from dining hall grub and snack hall munchies, most kids like to have an entire drawer of late-night and study-aiding snacks.
3. SCHOOL SUPPLIES — parents will generally help pay for textbooks because they are, to this day, ridiculously overpriced, but smaller things like pens, highlighters, notebooks, art supplies (for the artists), and other commodities are often paid for by the student.
4. ELECTRONICS — as colleges launch into the new technological age, headphones, laptops, iPads, and the works are all required for a steadfast education.

Roughly, let’s say that each student needs about $200-300 per month in order to live a comfortable life in their dorm room. But, if they’re broke, how are they going to make that happen?

The Two Methods of Money Making: On- or Off-Campus

There are some colleges that do and some colleges that do not provide work study. Work study is a student working program offered as a means of scholarship, which provides some sum total per semester in exchange for work. The student gets paid a normal paycheck, either weekly or bi-weekly and has to work some menial job at the university.

There are plenty of jobs that a student can have, and each varies depending on the school they go to. Normally, though, they have the option to work in or as:

1. THE LIBRARY
   1. This normally includes checking out books, re-shelving books, and running the front desk.
2. THE DINING HALL
   1. This can be anything from working in the back room to help prepare that day’s food (chopping, prepping food, preparing salads, etc.), to swiping in students at the front entrance, to wiping down tables after meals.
3. THE BOOKSTORE
   1. This normally includes manning the cash register and restocking shelves, though some schools may also make you take inventory of stock.
4. THE TRAINING CENTER
   1. This can include either swiping students into the facility, cleaning the equipment, or acting as a personal trainer (though this option varies per school).
5. THE SNACK SHOP
   1. This normally includes manning the cash register and restocking shelves, though some schools may also make you take inventory of stock.
6. THE MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT
   1. Any student working in the Maintenance Department will normally shadow other grounds workers and help when needed.
7. FRONT DESK CHECK-IN (FOR CITY SCHOOLS)
   1. Front desk check-in members swipe student ID cards upon entrance to the building. This is used as a precautionary measure to keep out city-dwellers in public city schools; most rural or suburban based colleges do not require a front desk, check-in workers.
8. RAs, FOR EACH FLOOR OF A DORMITORY
   1. This is normally reserved for older students and requires them to care for and run an entire floor of a dormitory building.
9. THE POST OFFICE / MAILROOM
   1. This normally includes sorting through the mail and putting into appropriate student mailboxes, as well as sending off packages and letters.
10. TEACHING ASSISTANT
    1. Teaching Assistants are normally spots reserved for older students, and often for those who are aiming to be teachers themselves. They normally help with giving and grading assignments, teaching some lessons, and developing lesson plans.
11. ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES
    1. Students working in the administrative offices typically work in the front office and help the administration in day-to-day activities.

If your college does not have work study, there is always the option to get work off campus. Since most colleges reside in some city or town, venturing off campus for work in a coffee shop, general store, homegoods store, or some other type of part-time work is a good option for bringing in extra money every month.

However, this option also has roadblocks. There are a great number of students who do not own cars, and some colleges even prohibit the use of cars for freshman or anyone under a certain age. If your college is situated in a rural area or small town, or even a suburb, getting around to the town without a car can be very difficult. (City colleges may not have this problem, depending on the methods of public transportation the city contains.)

Off-campus work is also harder to work around school schedules. Most work-study positions are aware of the schedules that classes have, whether two or four hours and bosses can be easily spoken to about working your working schedule around your ever-changing school schedule. Off-campus jobs, however, may have a more difficult time understanding this conundrum. Although they reside in a college town and may have some idea of the school schedule, working hours are oftentimes more regimented and harder to work around. In addition, leaving and coming back to your position at the beginning and end of every school term can put a strain on your off-campus boss.

Even still, if your college does not have work-study positions, off-campus jobs can be your next best bet.

Or, if not, there are always more entrepreneurial methods of money making while you are in college.

ONLINE MONEY-MAKING

Today’s college kids are luckier than they realize when it comes to making money. While on and off campus jobs are a great way to make some side money, they are also much more regimented and have very stable hours. These hours sometimes do not coincide with your class schedule or leave little time for you to complete schoolwork or socialize with your peers.

However, nowadays we live in a technological age. Today anyone of any age, gender, color, sexual orientation, class, whatever, can make money online. Based upon their skill sets, there are a whole plethora of ways to use one’s expertise to make money online, while also having time to complete their school work, socialize with friends and suitemates, and even call their mother once a week.

Here are a few methods of making money online as a college student:

1. WRITING AND SELLING ELECTRONIC BOOKS
   1. College kids spend enough time per day reading about their major that they can claim expertise in it. But what if you are spending weeks or months figuring out a single equation, or have mastered the methods of studying for the Bar Exam? Or a scientist who specializes in fitness techniques for CrossFit, or even an artist who wants to compare brush strokes or canvas? Write a book about it. EBooks take anywhere from a night to a few weeks to make and can rake in money for years afterward; this method of passive income is a fantastic style of money-making for a busy college student.
2. SET UP A TUTORING OR COACHING BUSINESS
   1. Students come to college for every type of career under the sun, and some come specifically to become teachers or coaches. But why wait until graduation to begin your career? Websites nowadays are very easy to build and very affordable to maintain, and can easily be crafted in your dorm room late at night on a Tuesday. Keeping up with coaching clients or adding in tutoring sessions alongside your workload as a college student can be daring and exhaustive, however, but can also be very rewarding. A student can charge a significant amount for coaching services depending on their level of expertise, which can greatly influence their monthly revenue.
3. START A PODCAST
   1. A big proponent of online money making is selling ad space. Nowadays, podcasts are becoming the new radio, and are available on Spotify, iTunes, SoundCloud, and even on personal websites. So if you’re an expert in your field but are terrible at writing or your field doesn’t require a tutor or coach, throw yourself into a podcast. Take your spare time to interview fellow classmates, professors, and other professionals, gain traction for your podcast in whatever space you are an expert in, and, when you build enough traction, sell ad space.
4. WRITE A BLOG
   1. Blog writing is very similar to starting a podcast, as both can gain traction and sell ad space. Whereas podcasts are utilizing ad space from specific retailers and companies, blogs can utilize Google AdSpace in order to take in revenue.
5. FREELANCE WRITING
   1. Freelance writing is similar to taking a half-step in the direction of your own personal blog or podcast. Freelance writing gives you a soft deadline on any number of articles, either for a printed magazine, online magazine, or someone else’s personal blog. You can also set your own rates up to a point, and choose when to accept a job and when to pass on one. However, freelance writing is just as laborious as writing your own personal blog or, in a school-sense, writing a term paper, and therefore not everyone has the time for it.Freelancing can also be funneled through websites, such as Indeed or UpWork, where employers will post an ad online that you can respond to. Or, you can submit your own articles to more well-known publications in the hopes that your writing is picked for their next issue. Either way, freelance writing can be fairly consistent and, during lulling periods in the term, is a great way to increase your monthly revenue.
6. BUILD UP YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
   1. Millennials and Generation X’s are known, quite viciously, for being glued to their phone. However, this may not be a bad thing. Building up a personal brand by being present in your own personal life and taking your audience along for the ride every day is a great way to build traction towards yourself and whatever message (if you hopefully have one) you are trying to convey through your Social Media (which can include: Instagram, Instagram Stories, Instagram Live, and IGTV; YouTube; Twitter; Pinterest; SnapChat; FaceBook and FaceBook Live; and Musical.ly).Building up traction towards your social media, like your podcast or blog, can attract the attention of companies and brands that align with the same principles that you do. After a time, branding deals can ensue, which can be presented as either free product, commission rates, or publicity on their own social media, which can help you to gain even more attention to your own page and start the cycle all over again. Aligning with brands can help you to generate income just by being consistent with your social media, something which most young adults and teenagers already do quite liberally, making it a semi-passive method of money-making. Which, again, is most ideal for a busy college student.