Being broke all the time has become a rite of passage for college students.

Many students work one or two jobs to support themselves, but busy class schedules can make it difficult for some to fit in any part-time work.

On top of that, the lack of a college degree limits your options for well-paying jobs that aren’t dreadful.

You shouldn’t have to scour campus and the Internet for ways to pay for your textbooks or groceries, so we’ve put together a list of the best jobs for college students.

Why College Students Should Get A Job

Holding down a job as a college student is beneficial in several ways.

• Earn money: You can earn money for your living expenses, course materials, club dues, and for your own fun. Alternatively, you can build savings for after graduation.
• Build your resume: You’ll have an easier time in the internship and job markets with some job experience on your resume.
• Apply your knowledge: Landing a job relevant to your major lets you apply your classroom learning in the real world. This can lead to better grades.
• Learn career skills: Working a job in college forces you to learn time management, communication, and professionalism.
• Networking: Jobs provide you an excellent opportunity to build your professional network. You could land a full-time offer while still in school!

Best Jobs For College Students With Cars

Did you bring your car to campus? Make money with your car at one of these jobs.

Doordash

Doordash is a titan in the food delivery service industry. Doordash drivers, called Dashers, pick up customer orders from restaurants and deliver the orders right to the customer’s doorstep.

Dashers earn a flat rate per order plus tips. During slow times, they also guarantee a minimum rate to ensure you aren’t walking away empty-handed.

Doordash is constantly expanding its services to new cities. If Doordash is available in your college town, it could be a great way to earn some money with your car.

Postmates

Postmates expanded on the meal delivery idea. Drivers deliver meals, groceries, and even retail items to Postmates customers.

Drivers earn delivery fees and tips on their orders.

Delivery fees are charged on every order; the fee amount depends on the size of the order and the distance you have to drive to complete it. Postmates takes 20% of these earnings as commission and leaves you the rest.

Then there’re the tips. These are calculated based on the total order price, which includes the actual order, the delivery fees, and a service charge. If you’re a fast delivery driver, you can stack some serious cash.

Postmates calculates their delivery fees differently depending on the city, so exact dollar amounts are hard to come by.

Regardless, Postmates can be a lucrative gig for college students with a car.

UberEats

In recent years, Uber expanded into the food delivery space with UberEats, giving you two potential ways to earn with Uber.

Since customers are used to tipping for food delivery, you may earn more in tips with UberEats than regular Uber driving.

Just like driving for regular Uber, you can clock in and clock out as you please. If you’ve got some time in between classes, knock out a few deliveries on UberEats!

You get immediate access to your funds once you’ve earned them with Uber’s Instant Pay feature.

Getaround

Founded in September of 2009, Getaround lets you earn money with your car by renting it to others.

You set your own rates and don’t even have to meet with your customers to hand them the keys. Customers can locate and unlock your car using their phones once you complete your transaction on the app.

For your safety and security, Getaround screens every driver. Every trip also includes $1,000,000 in insurance and 24/7 roadside assistance.

Turo

Turo lets you rent out your car and is available in 5,500 cities across the US, Canada, the UK, and Germany.

It’s typically best to list your car on both Turo and Getaround to get your car rented as much as possible.

Earning potential is excellent because you get to set your own rates. Turo provides you with tools and calculators to figure out how much you should be charging if you need help.

For your security, Turo protects you with $1 million in liability insurance. They also screen all travelers before allowing them to book cars in their marketplace, and provide a 24/7 emergency helpline for anything you might need.

Lyft

Lyft is a popular ridesharing company. Driving with Lyft is simple: Pick up riders and drop them off at their destination.

Drivers earn a base fare for each ride, plus a mileage rate and a driving time rate. The mileage and driving time rates vary by city. Passengers can tip drivers as well.

Lyft is currently offering a $1,000 guarantee.

Lyft drivers can boost their earnings with several bonuses:

• Ride challenges: Complete a certain amount of rides in a set amount of time
• Personal power zones: Earn bonuses for completing rides in high-demand areas
• Streak bonuses: When Lyft creates a streak bonus opportunity, you can earn the streak bonus by accepting several rides back-to-back

Lyft provides its drivers with hourly predictions regarding the most lucrative times of the day to drive. They’ll also notify you if there are any events nearby so you can complete more rides.

Uber

Uber is one of the world’s most popular ridesharing apps, so there’s money to be made.

You earn money by picking up Uber riders and getting them safely to their destination. You’re paid a standard rate based on your area plus some extra based on your time and distance driven on a particular trip.

On top of that, riders can tip you for good service.

During especially busy times, you can take advantage of higher rates (called “surge” pricing) to earn even more, like during Friday and Saturday nights.

Driving with Uber is quite a flexible gig. You get to clock in when you want to earn some money and clock back out when you’re done for the day, so think about Uber if you’re busy with schoolwork.

Best Survey & Rewards Sites For College Students

College students can make money right from their phone or computer by signing up for these survey sites and earn money for things they do every day through rewards sites.

Get Paid to Complete Surveys and Everyday Tasks

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is a rewards app that rewards users with points, called Swagbucks, for completing various tasks. You can earn points by

• Completing surveys.
• Answering polls.
• Shopping online through Swagbucks.
• Playing games.
• Watching videos.
• Browsing the internet on Swagbucks.

You can redeem your points for free gift cards to a ton of major retailers once you’ve saved up enough. If you don’t want gift cards, Swagbucks lets you cash out your points for PayPal credit instead.

Swagbucks gives you a $5 bonus just for signing up. Read our Swagbucks review to learn more about Swagbucks.

SurveyJunkie

SurveyJunkie pays you to take surveys on their app or website. Once you create your profile, SurveyJunkie analyzes it to match you to surveys most relevant to you. The result of this matchup is a pretty good payout.

Once you earn 1,000 points, or in other words $10, you can cash out your earnings for gift cards to hundreds of companies or PayPal credit if you just want cash.

When you sign up for SurveyJunkie, complete your profile, and confirm your email, they give you a nice 100-point welcome bonus.

InboxDollars

InboxDollars is a survey site that rewards you for taking surveys, browsing the internet, shopping online, playing games and even reading emails.

Each time you complete a task, you’re paid in cash instead of points. Earn $30 on InboxDollars and you can cash out via PayPal.

InboxDollars will give you a nice $5 just for signing up, perhaps the easiest $5 you’ll ever make!

Shopping Rewards Apps

Ibotta

Ibotta’s a shopping rewards app that’s partnered with hundreds of major retailers to offer you discounts in the form of cashback.

All you have to do is select your offers on your Ibotta account before shopping, buy your items, and scan the QR code on your receipt using the Ibotta smartphone app. They’ll credit your account for any valid redemptions within 48 hours of submitting the receipts.

For more convenience, you can link your store loyalty accounts to your Ibotta account. Then, you won’t even have to keep the receipt to redeem your offers. Read our full Ibotta review to learn more.

Shopkick

Shopkick rewards you with points, called kicks, for completing several shopping-related tasks. You can earn kicks by shopping online or in-store by either submitting your receipts or linking your credit/debit card.

In addition to shopping, Shopkick rewards you with kicks for

• Walking into certain stores.
• Scanning select item barcodes.
• Watching in-app videos about new products.

Earn enough kicks and you can turn them into gift cards to your favorite retailers.

According to Shopkick, many people can earn enough for their first gift card in a week!

We have a full Shopkick review if you’d like to learn more.

Rakuten

Rakuten, formerly known as Ebates, pays you cash back for shopping online or in-store at one of their 2,000+ partner stores. They earn money each time you make a purchase through their link, then pass some of that money down to you.

Every store lists the percentage cashback you can earn upfront. Click through the link and complete your purchase like normal, and Rakuten will credit your account within a couple of business days.

Rakuten pays out your earnings every quarter as long as you’ve earned at least $5 in cash back.

Other Rewards Sites

Nielsen

Nielsen, one of the biggest consumer research companies, pays its users for data regarding their internet use.

Instead of earning money per survey, Nielsen only gives you one short survey after signing up. Upon completion of the survey, you then download their app onto as many of your devices as you want so they can monitor and collect data about your internet consumption.

From there, you earn completely passively just for keeping the app installed.

In addition, Nielsen enters its users into large cash prize drawings. Who knows: you might earn thousands simply for keeping an app on your phone or tablet.

Best Entrepreneurial Jobs For College Students

Caught the entrepreneurial bug in college? Look into some of these jobs.

Blogging

Blogging is a great entrepreneurial side job for college students. They cost very little to start (hosting from Bluehost costs $2.95 per month) and you can write about whatever you want, as long as you can build an audience around it. BlueHost powers over 2 million websites, and takes just minutes to launch your own wesbite. They offer 24/7 support and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

College students can monetize their blogs with

• Ads (placed on the blog)
• Affiliate marketing
• Sponsored posts

The best part is you can earn big money blogging if you find a large audience that loves your content.

Influencer

Do you live a certain lifestyle or have a hobby that you love to share with others? You could monetize it by becoming an influencer.

Influencers typically make money by promoting products and services they use in pursuit of their lifestyle or hobby. For example, an influencer in the beauty niche might promote a skincare company whose products they regularly use.

With that in mind, Instagram is a big moneymaker for influencers. Brands might pay you a flat fee for a sponsored post or could choose to give you a percentage of sales you’re able to drive to them through a unique link they provide you.

Ecommerce

More shopping than ever is done online, meaning e-commerce could be a lucrative opportunity for college students.

Dropshipping, in particular, is a great e-commerce business model due to the low startup costs. Instead of manufacturing products or holding inventory, you list items from various suppliers on your online storefront at a markup from the supplier’s price.

When a customer buys a product, you receive the money, purchase the product from the supplier, provide them the customer information, then the supplier ships the product directly to the customer.

If this sounds interesting to you, Shopify is an excellent platform to dropship with. Shopify powers over 1 million ecommerce stores and owns dropshipping site Oberlo, which will help you find items to dropship on your store in minutes. Shopify offers a 14-day free trial. Read our Shopify review to learn more.

Virtual Products

College students with great knowledge in a niche subject can make money by creating virtual products like eBooks or online courses.

Because they’re completely digital, virtual products have large profit margins and your sales can easily become quite passive.

When you’ve created your product, you have a few ways to sell them.

eBooks

You can publish eBooks on Amazon to take advantage of their customer base and marketing. You can also sell the eBook on your own website.

Online Courses

Your options for online courses are similar to those of eBooks. You can sell your course on a platform such as Udemy or Teachable to take advantage of their resources and size. You can also sell the course on your own website.

Best Online Jobs For College Students

Work from anywhere you have a computer and internet connection with these online jobs for college students.

Online Tutoring

College students that earn high grades in their major classes should look into online tutoring jobs. Most of these jobs pay well and let you set your own hours.

For example, Chegg pays their tutors $20+ per hour. They get to work as many hours as they’d like and set their own schedule.

Website Testing

Companies routinely hire people to test their websites to ensure they function properly and are easy to navigate.

These jobs pay more than you might expect. UserTesting, one of the best sites for finding website testing jobs, pays you $10 for each 10-15 minute test you finish; you could earn up to $60 an hour!

Freelance Writing

Freelance writing is one of the easiest and most flexible online jobs for college students. Freelance writers can pick any niche they want (or no niche at all), set their own rates and schedules.

Not sure where to get clients? You can jumpstart your freelance writing hustle on freelance marketplace sites like Upwork and Fiverr.

Social Media Management

Social media management is a fun and flexible online job for college students. Social media managers write and schedule posts, engage with followers, examine analytics, and more.

You can either land a social media management job or strike out on your own. Striking out on your own is riskier, but you can set your own hours and rates.

Virtual Assistant

College students can get paid using their organization and communications skills by landing a virtual assistant gig.

Virtual assistant pay varies depending on the amount and/or difficulty of your responsibilities, which might include

• Scheduling
• Email correspondence
• Phone calls
• Customer service
• Data entry
• Social media
• Website maintenance

Best Campus Jobs For College Students

Your campus is teeming with job opportunities.

• Campus Dining: Most universities give their campus dining staff free meals.
• Residential Advisor (RA): RA’s get free housing.
• School Newspaper: They are always looking for writers who know the goings-on of their college.
• IT Assistant: These jobs pay pretty well, and they usually have you staying on your feet by traveling around campus to fix things.
• Research Assistant: Work with a professor on their research and get paid. Looks great on a resume.
• Teaching Assistant: Teach lower-lever/general education classes in your major. Looks great on a resume.
• Administrative Assistant: Every department needs student employees to complete various front desk and administrative tasks.
• Fitness Instructor/Personal Trainer: Get your sweat on and get paid as a fitness instructor or personal trainer at your campus’s rec center or other athletic facilities.
• Tour Guide: Know your campus by heart? Show prospective students and their families around the place you call home.
• Campus Tutor: Pay is pretty good, usually get to set your own hours, and might learn the subject matter better by teaching it.

Other Jobs For College Students

Here are some miscellaneous yet excellent jobs for college students.

Paid Internships

Paid internships pay pretty well, look great on a resume, and help you build connections within your field.

Your school likely has a job board where you can find these opportunities. Check out your school’s career fairs as well, as many employers are looking for their future interns at these events.

You can seek out additional opportunities by browsing job sites like Indeed or Monster.

Brand Ambassador

Brand ambassadors serve as on-campus marketing representatives for the companies they work for. They put on tabling events, do cold outreach to clients/customers, run social media, put up flyers, and more.

Brand ambassadors get paid pretty well and have some flexibility in setting their hours. Sometimes, they even get discounts at the company they represent.

Recycling

You can pocket some cash right away by recycling. Designate a trash bag to throw your empty soda and beer cans into when empty.

In addition, large sporting events like football games are a goldmine. Take a walk around campus with a trash bag and collect the numerous beer cans lying around.

If you live in a state with bottle deposit laws, you can return your plastic and aluminum cans and bottles to earn your deposits. Otherwise, you can haul your recycled aluminum cans to the scrap heap for money.

Tips For Employed College Students

College students seeking part-time employment should keep a few things in mind.

Network

College students should always be networking. Not only will it help you land a part-time student gig, but you’ll make connections in your field which can result in a full-time job offer by the time you graduate!

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Prioritize Your Classwork

Remember, you’re in college first and foremost to learn. Don’t let your job’s stress or hours impede your academic performance.

Aim For a Job In Your Major

Ideally, you want to land a job in your major, even if it’s just working at the front desk of your major’s department. Any experience is good, but relevant experience is better.

You’ll also make connections with staff and faculty who can introduce you to prospective employers down the line.

Learn to Manage Your Money

Money’s going to be tight, so learn some money management skills as soon as possible. These will be of great help when you leave college for the working world.

Open a Savings Account

Open a savings account once you’re hired. Direct a small portion of each paycheck to your savings account in case of emergency and so you have some savings built up after graduating.

Never Be Broke Again

Most college students have to work a job to get by. Even those that can get through college without a job take one anyways for spending money.

Whether you need a job or just want some financial flexibility while in college, consider one of the jobs on this list.