I’m going to college next year, and I need to pay for most of the tuition myself. My question is, what are the best ways to make money in college? I’d like to save up a bit while I’m still in school. Does anyone know about best jobs to get, work study, or other ways to make money? What about participating in psychology/ medical studies on-campus?
Bump
Have you applied for financial aid?
Getting a part-time job (if you didn’t receive a work study) is always a reliable way to make money.
Another good one that my friends do is “sober rides”. If you have a car on campus, you advertise your number and say that people can call you to get a ride back to their dorm after a party. They usually charge $10-$20 per person and they often make hundreds of dollars on a weekend night.
However, scholarships and financial aid are the best way to pay for college nowadays.
Charge other kids to do their laundry.
Donating plasma seems to be a popular option among people in my dorm. A slightly less popular option is to participate in studies with the psychology or applied behavioral science departments.
Driving people back from parties isn’t all that prevalent at my school because we have programs called Safe Bus and Safe Ride that do it for free, but it is quite common for someone with a car to give rides to/from the airport before/after break. If you charge everyone $20 for gas money you’ll make a pretty good profit if you drive 2-3 people.
Tutoring and on campus jobs are the most solid options.
@baileyj57
Especially if you own a Nissan Leaf 
@Alexmer I have applied for financial aid, but it looks like I won’t be getting very much.
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I’d love to hear any more ideas.
University employees usually get some sort of tuition benefit. These positions are usually full time or at least half time, so its challenging to do both.
I’m not sure if you are male or female. BUT, while waiting for my son to finish up his exam before Christmas break, an ad in the local paper advertised make up to $4,000 making sperm donations. If you qualified as a candidate, you’d visit the office once a week for the next 12 - 16 weeks to make a donation. It was to help couples wanting to have children.
I didn’t look into it, but it seemed like a quick way to quickly earn money.
I know kids with computer skills that run small web businesses and make money that way. But how much of a gap are you looking at after Federal loans and any grants you do get? Really hustling, working a lot in the summer (2 jobs?) maybe working over winter break, and juggling a part time job during the year, I don’t see most students making up more than say an $8k gap per year, and that would be REALLY putting every spare minute into working.
@intparent I will have quite a bit of debt, but even $8k each year could help. I would like to start paying off my loans right away, and that would at least cover the interest. Every little bit counts with student loans!
Are you taking out loans beyond federal loans? How big is your annual gap once you have taken federal loans?
I know you didn’t come here for advice on school choice, but are you sure that the school you chose is worth taking so much debt that $8k/year only covers “at least the interest”?
@intparent I’m not sure how all of the loans work yet - I just know that I won’t be able to get much aid, and will need to find a way to pay for most of the tuition myself.
@Alexmer I’m definitely still in the process of deciding! I don’t even know if I got into the most expensive schools I applied to, so I may have my choice made for me.
So you can only borrow $5,500 freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year, and $7,500 per year for junior and senior year. Any other loans need your parents to cosign them. There is no way to make up the difference for a high priced school if you aren’t eligible for need based aid and your parents won’t pay. Did you apply to any schools you know you can afford, and are pretty sure to get into?
if you’re doing CS, summer internships can pay up to $5k a month.
I feel ya, my parents are gonna sink me in $80k debt (for four years combined). I’m going to try to early graduate to save money son.
I had a great job working in my residence hall at the front desk. You could find out about residence hall jobs after you find out where you are going and what dorm you are living in. I didn’t get this job until my second year after I got to know the full time staff person who worked there during the day.
Better serve them bricks like gucci mane lol