Being a student is a full-time job in itself, with endless assignments, lectures, and, of course, a vibrant and exciting social life.
Unfortunately, this is also the period where most people experience ‘the broke college student’ trope in all its fury, relying on modest allowances from parents, which often run out midway through the semester.
So, what if you could earn some extra money without sacrificing your grades (or your sanity for that matter)?
Making Money as a College Student
No, this isn’t some get-rich-quick scheme. We’ve instead identified 20 legitimate opportunities that offer the flexibility you need to maintain your GPA while adding some extra padding to your wallet and working entirely on your terms.
1. Sign up as a delivery driver
If you have a bike or a car, consider delivering delicious meals to hungry customers on platforms such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, or Grubhub, and get paid to just cruise around town for hours, making it one of the best side hustles for students.
It’s easy to get started. You must be at least 19 years old and have a social security number. Then, all you have to do is download the driver/partner apps of the respective platforms and go through the fairly straightforward signup process.
Once you're set up, you can start making deliveries whenever you are free. There is no minimum number of hours or orders, and you’re free to work on your own terms.
With these apps, you stand to earn between $15 to $25 an hour, which is perfect for making the most of your downtime.
2. Sell your used textbooks
Your textbooks likely cost you a small fortune at the beginning of the semester. Now that you’re done with them, however, you can get some of that money back while helping your juniors access study materials for a more affordable price.
Sites such as BookScouter, TextbookRush, and Decluttr are perfect for this, but you can also consider your college campus networks, WhatsApp groups, or good old-fashioned word of mouth to reach out to prospective buyers.
Used textbooks, if they are the most recent edition can sell for about 20% to 50% of the original retail price, provided they are in pristine condition. So, make sure you avoid any major markings, scribbles, or folded pages that could tarnish their value.
3. Tutor other students online
If there’s a subject that you’re an absolute ace at, there are likely students who will pay you to tutor them. Not only is this a great way to earn some extra money, but it can also help reinforce your own understanding of the topic.
Of course, it need not be your current classmates or the subject you are currently pursuing yourself. You can start tutoring students online using platforms such as Whop, among others, where students come from all across the country.
This helps avoid the awkwardness of charging money from friends and classmates who might just be seeking your help. However, when using such platforms, a vast majority of your students will be high schoolers looking for help with their homework, which may not challenge you all that much.
As an online tutor, you can make anywhere between $15 to $30 an hour as a beginner. With some experience, though, the hourly rate can go as high as $70 for more specialized subjects.
4. Take part in market research
Companies and organizations love honest opinions from real people on a broad range of topics. This can be your views on a popular political candidate, how favorably you view a particular brand, or what your first impressions are on a product or service, among a host of other things.
Such research could include an online survey, a focus group requiring your physical presence, or actual product testing. Popular sites such as Survey Junkie, Branded Surveys, and Swagbucks are great places to find such opportunities.
However, you might want to look up Craigslist or FocusGroups.org. They list plenty of opportunities for high-paying focus groups or product testing gigs.
Simple surveys that take about 10 minutes might pay $3 to $6, but a large, structured focus group might pay anywhere from $150 to $500.
5. Resell your unused goods
College dorm rooms are often needlessly cluttered with old clothes, gadgets, trinkets, and tchotchkes that just lay around gathering dust. If you’re ever in need of quick cash, consider selling a few or all of these unused goods.
Not only is this a good way to cover certain emergency expenses, but it can effectively declutter your room, giving it a clean and organized look.
Apps like Poshmark, Depop, and eBay are perfect for this, but the good old listing on Craigslist or Facebook’s Marketplace should work just as well to resell used stuff.
6. Make & sell online courses
If you have deep knowledge or skills in a particular subject, consider creating a course and selling it online to students located all across the globe.
Given that we’re talking about a potential customer base of 8 billion people, you can pretty much create courses on any topic under the sun, and there will be at least a dozen or more people interested in learning more about it.
Platforms such as Whop are perfect for this, helping you host, deliver, and even market your courses.
It will take quite a bit of effort initially to get your courses up and running, but in the long run, this is passive income in the truest sense. If you can spend time during breaks to build up this side hustle, it will continue earning for you with minimal effort going forward.
7. Get a part-time job on campus
Most college campuses require a helping hand from students, and lots of it to function effectively. This is a great source of income for students, especially since most such jobs and their schedules are designed to accommodate academic timelines.
This could involve helping at the library or as an IT assistant, mailroom assistant, barista, peer tutor, and more. Taking up these jobs doesn’t just help with your finances, but it can actually make your overall college experience more enjoyable.
You can expect to earn about $7 to $15 an hour. This isn’t a lot, but since you will be on campus and could gain a lot of experience from this, it is well worth it.
8. Become a dog walker
For those of you who love dogs and taking walks every day, here is an opportunity to earn a lucrative side income. This is also a gig that doesn’t take a lot of your time. It can usually be done early in the morning, so you have the rest of the day to attend classes, study, and take care of your grades.
There are plenty of platforms that match dog walkers with owners. The most popular ones are Wags and Rover, but you can also find gigs on Craigslist and local Facebook groups.
How much you make from this depends largely on where you operate. Most people start off at about $28 an hour, but if you’re located in certain affluent neighborhoods with plenty of demand, you can easily make $1,000 or more per week with just 1 or 2 hours per day.
9. Make & sell study guides
If you’re the kind of student who takes detailed notes and enjoys creating diagrams, summaries, and more for each class, you’ll be happy to know plenty of people will gladly pay for your efforts.
This isn’t just other students in your class, but all students across the country looking for guides on a particular subject. Sites such as Stuvia and Nexus Notes allow you to monetize all of your hard work, provided your notes are well-organized and easy to understand.
The average seller earnings on these platforms stand at $74 per month. This isn’t a lot, but some top sellers have made $30,000 to $40,000 from their notes over two to three years. Since this is just monetizing the notes that you’re already taking, it makes sense as an additional income. You can also sell these notes on Whop - simply create them on Canva, then upload them to Whop and start selling.
10. Take on freelance work
Whether it is coding, graphic design, writing, or social media management, there are plenty of online freelancing opportunities for young college students. There is a broad spectrum of services you can offer to potential clients, all the while setting your rates and schedules.
Sites such as Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer help you get in touch with clients who match your interests and skills. Of course, these platforms are now intensely competitive, and it takes quite some time and effort to get paying gigs.
There is no limit to how much you can earn via freelancing, though. By providing good service to clients, the earnings can reach the equivalent of a full-time job.
11. Housesit for cash
Housesitting for cash is exactly what it sounds like. Homeowners will pay you to look after their homes, water their plants, and, at times, take care of their pets while they’re away on vacation.
You are essentially getting paid to stay in someone else’s house and take care of a few minor tasks each day. After this, you can do whatever you like, whether it is studying, working, or just relaxing, while still getting paid for it.
Sites such as Nomador, MindMyHouse, and TrustedHousesitters help you connect with homeowners looking for a sitter. You stand to earn $25 to $45 a day, which isn’t bad, considering all you're doing is staying in someone's house for a few days, rent-free.
12. Write & sell ebooks
Whether you have a story to tell or deep knowledge on a particular topic or subject, if you can put it in words, there are certainly a handful of people among the 8 billion souls on this planet who’ll gladly pay to read what you have to say.
If you can put in the effort to research, write, and publish an ebook, platforms such as Whop will help you put it in front of an audience. No more presenting it to a publisher and facing a dozen rejections every day.
Ebooks are another great option for passive income. You’ll have to invest a great deal of time initially, but once it's out there, it will continue earning for you, often for months and years before it might need to be updated.
13. Sell lunchtime snacks
If you have some culinary skills, selling snacks during lunchtime to your friends and peers can be surprisingly profitable. This, of course, depends on where your school/university’s policies stand on students selling food in the hallway, but if it is supportive, this is a very lucrative side hustle.
Try to keep it simple, with only sandwiches, wraps, or certain baked or packaged goods that don’t take up a lot of your time to prepare. In addition to helping you earn some cash, this can make you famous on campus, if word of mouth gets going regarding your product.
It takes a bit of effort, and it’s not as straightforward as many of the other options on this list, but being a high-margin, high-volume opportunity, you stand to make significantly more money with this.
14. Become a resident assistant
Being a resident assistant on campus comes with a lot of responsibilities. You'll help plan events and respond to complaints and emergencies, all the while helping new students better transition to life in the dorm.
In return, you earn about $14 to $17 an hour, but most importantly you get discounted housing and meals, which could be worth a lot more.
To become one, you’ll have to apply to your college’s RA program. This could involve an interview, along with verification of your grades and performance. A good GPA is often a prerequisite for getting this gig.
15. Create a paid online community
An online community is an intimate gathering of like-minded people, often pursuing a common goal while helping each other with the same. This can be anything under the sun, from entrepreneurship and activism to even topics related to your studies.
If you are deeply passionate about a niche topic, starting an online community to get others involved isn’t just a great way to share and build your own knowledge; it can also help you earn a sizable income when monetized well.
Platforms such as Discord and Patreon can be absolute goldmines when it comes to this, but nothing beats the remarkable flexibility and feature-rich offerings of Whop in this regard. Not only does it offer everything you need to get your community up and running, but it also offers a vibrant marketplace with millions of buyers.
16. Do online customer service
If you have a laptop and WiFi, you can start taking up online customer support gigs, most of which offer flexible timings to suit your study schedule.
Platforms such as Liveops, Arise, and LionBridge are constantly looking for remote customer service reps for clients across the globe.
Most of them require that you be based out of certain states within the US to qualify, and once you submit your application, you’ll be asked to undergo a background check, which could take about a week. Once this is done, you can start applying for gigs and working right away.
You are paid on a per-minute basis, depending on the type of job you get, but most people report earning between $17 to $25 an hour using these platforms.
17. Rent out your car
If you own a car that sits idle for much of the day, consider renting it out to others using peer-to-peer rental platforms such as Turo. Of course, this works only for used cars that you aren’t that attached to, not for a premium or luxury vehicle that you cannot stomach strangers driving.
Apart from Turo, there is Zipcar, Getaround, and even Uber Rent, among several others that you can consider listing your car on. How much you make with this largely depends on the make and model of your car, along with where you’re located.
On average, owners make around $630 a month from their cars using such platforms, which isn’t too shabby for a broke college student!
18. Sell PLR digital products
PLR refers to private label rights, and by buying PLR digital products you are also acquiring the rights to sell these products to others, under your own name and brand. You buy these digital products once, and you can resell them to any number of people, any number of times, on any site or platform.
This is a great way to make some extra money since you don’t have to spend time and effort to actually create the product. Additionally, most PLR products aren’t expensive to begin with, so you don’t need a lot of money to invest either.
Of course, finding quality products isn’t easy, since most PLR ebooks, articles, or courses tend to be of low quality. If you can spend some time, however, you should come across a product that people would be willing to pay for.
19. Work at summer festivals
Put your summer breaks to good use by working at one of the several popular summer festivals across town. These jobs usually involve scanning tickets, helping set up and organize events, and working as a general assistant who takes care of a wide variety of tasks.
In addition to making good money, these gigs are a lot of fun. You get to be part of a high-energy environment with a unique vibe while meeting cool new people, which doesn’t feel like work in the traditional sense.
The pay here tends to be fairly limited, ranging from $7 to $14 an hour, but not much to complain about considering the nature of the gig.
20. Try dropshipping
Dropshipping essentially involves selling products on ecommerce platforms, such as Amazon and eBay, without actually handling the products or maintaining any stock yourself.
As soon as you make a sale on these platforms or your own website, you place an order with your supplier, who then ships it directly to the customer. This, of course, is very attractive for students, given the ease at which they can get started and the low investment required.
There are plenty of people who’ve built big 7-figure businesses using this strategy, but it has gotten a lot more competitive of late. If you want to get started with this, consider joining certain relevant communities, such as Suits Commerce, The Yard, or eCom Paradise.
What’s the Easiest Way to Make Money as a Student?
We’ve uncovered several legit opportunities for students to make money during their downtime. While all of them can help you earn some extra cash, a handful are better suited for the lifestyle and time constraints of student life.
On the face of it, anything that involves working digitally and helps create a passive income stream is perfect for students.
With this, we are referring to writing and selling ebooks, creating online courses, and setting up paid communities. Of course, all of these seem rather daunting, but this is where the opportunity lies. With a bit of time and effort, you could have more than just a side hustle on your hands.
Join Creators Making More Than $2,000 a Month With Whop
If you’ve decided to go down the digital path, Whop is the perfect platform to give wings to your lofty dreams. No matter what you plan on selling online, whether an ebook, course, membership access to a community, or even study notes, the platform offers everything you need to get started.
Given the scope of digital products you can market on Whop, you can monetize your existing knowledge to get started without any further education. Write an ebook on surviving your freshman year at college, or sell your meticulous lecture notes. Meanwhile, the video app allows you to conduct tutoring sessions, mastermind programs, webinars, and more.
Whop not only offers the tools to host and deliver content but also comes with a massive marketplace of potential buyers. Just listing your product/community on Whop will give you exposure. There are currently 1000s of sellers on the platform already earning over $2,000 a month from their respective whops.
All this and so much more without having to pay anything up-front. Start making money with Whop today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best ways to make money as a student?
The best way to make money is by pursuing digital side hustles that allow you to work on your own terms. Preferably they should also help create an asset that continues to drive passive income even if you cannot work for a few days.
Writing and selling an ebook, creating a course, and building a community, among other things, are thus best suited for students, despite the high initial time and effort involved.
What are the best jobs for a student?
Flexibility is often key for a student with limited time on their hands. Thus, the best jobs would be in the gig economy. This allows them to work on their terms and make their own hours while still earning a lucrative hourly wage.
