Making big bucks during college?

<p>Hi everyone,
Is it possible to start a "business" as a freshman in college, to earn some money toward medical school? </p>

<p>As a high-schooler, I have always thought about making money doing something I enjoy, and I am thinking about giving private music lessons as a college student, to local kids and adults in hopes of making some money. Is it a completely far-fetched idea?</p>

<p>I play the oboe at a competitive level and take AP Music Theory, but I'm also planning to apply to a few Ivies. Would it be possible to give lessons to multiple music students as a pre-med student at an Ivy League? I've heard horror stories of the stress, even without the added burden.</p>

<p>Any opinions would be appreciated!</p>

<p>~Hautbois</p>

<p>That would consume a lot of time, and you wouldn’t be making “the big bucks.” Music instructors make money because they have experience in music instruction. You don’t. You can be excellent at playing an instrument, and not know how to ‘teach’ it to someone else. You might be able to find a few students, but you wouldn’t be able to make as much money as an experience music teacher. It would be a little extra pocket money…not a ‘business.’ This would take up a lot of time either way. You’d have to put together lesson plans, which would some time outside of the actual lessons.</p>

<p>I agree that you’d probably only make pocket money from that, especially if you go to a top school. At top schools, there are likely tons of people as talented if not more talented than you, so that’d also slim down your opportunities. Competition is fierce. </p>

<p>You’d probably have better luck getting a regular job on campus. In order to make a decent amount of money, you have to put some work in. Hardly anyone makes “the bug bucks” while in college. If it were that easy, we’d all be doing it and we’d probably not even be in college. Lol. </p>

<p>But anyway, you should do it if you can/are willing to work hard for not too much money, but I wouldn’t depend on it to get you through med school. </p>

<p>God luck!</p>

<p>If the college you apply to has a work experience program, then you could do something. I know that the University of Illinois offers start up programs, where you create your own start up company. You could couple with one of your friends at the college who majors in business and then you two could do something.</p>

<p>Yeah dude, all you gotta do is start the next Facebook and bam, a few years later when your company IPOs then you’re a billionaire. </p>

<p>I am an oboist and taught private lessons for many years. At the max, I had 12 students. It took me at least 5 years to build up to 12 students and that was with a masters degree. That is 6-8 hours of work per week (most had half-hour lessons with a couple at one hour). What you can charge depends a lot on your area and availability of other teachers. As an inexperienced teacher, you might be able to get $15-$20 per half hour lesson, so $30-$40 per hour. I taught at a music school, so they took a cut, but they provided the studio and did the billing. Their policy was that missed lessons still had to be paid for. If you teach on your own, you need to have a place to teach and a way to enforce lesson times and collect payment. </p>

<p>my friend (we both just graduated high school in November)is tutoring violin 4 times a week for $25/hr. You won’t make ‘big bucks’ but I see no reason why you wouldn’t be able to tutor and make the equivalent of working a more boring job with more hours say in your school office or something</p>

<p>I made like $40 an hour tutoring in CS. Perks of going to a private school. </p>