College life isn’t as easy as at it may appear to be.

Over 20 million college students have to deal with stressful classes, social anxieties, and parental pressure. In addition to all of these struggles, at the top of the stress-pile lies the heavy weight of student loan debt.

The high cost of attending college has had a crucial impact on college life. This is why college memories usually involve hot dogs and Ramen noodles in contrast to comfort and luxury. Students need a dollar to go a long way

As a current sophomore in college, I figured there had be a way to make it through the four years without worrying about finances everyday. When I started out, I was unaware that not only was college too expensive for me, but I needed to figure out a way to make money to survive.

Stress led me to try new things out, only to fail many times, till I learned what worked. As they say, “Practice makes perfect.”

I learned that there are actually plenty of opportunities to make money while in college to ease the burden of high tuition.

Here is a list of nine ways I discovered that are flexible and lucrative enough to fit in with college-life:

1. Write Papers, and Finish Assignments with Unity.

Unity provides a free-market experience to all college students nationwide. Students have the ability to either set their own price to have assignments completed, or have the benefit of choosing to do assignments for payment. The best part is that it’s completely anonymous. Unity uses the same service that verifies students for financial aid to verify student enrollment upon signing up.

Unity is all about authenticity. All of Unity’s users are college students, and they intend to keep it that way. All completed assignments that are uploaded through Unity go through an enhanced plagiarism checker that provides the recipient with a percentage of authenticity. This allows users to make sure that none of the work that is provided by others is reused or stolen.

Simply make an account, and then choose to either post an assignment to be completed or seek to complete another assignment and be paid. Unity holds all payments made in their system until the assignment requested for completion is accepted by the recipient. The release of funds depends on the recipient’s decision to accept or deny the completed work based on the preview and plagiarism report provided to them.

There has never been a service that alleviates the stress for college students across the nation both educationally and financially until Unity.

2. Start Tutoring.

Upon completion of a class, students not only receive a grade, but they also obtain the skills needed to teach the subject to another student. Fortunately, students are always struggling with studies, so their is plenty of opportunity here.

Tutoring is a good way to both help others, and enhance a student’s teaching skills, while also making a profit on the side.

3. Intern Remotely.

By hustling and clicking, I found a way to land two internships with information technology companies during school. Some Brand Ambassador programs provide compensation, while others provide free merchandise such as shirts, hats, or pens.

4. Social Media Marketing.

Social media takes up a good amount of time for students. Luckily for us, there is money to be made. Truth be told, the most knowledgeable social media experts are the ones that spend the most time on the platforms. They become experts in understanding what users want to see.

Students can make money running social media accounts for companies. This is a good way to gain experience, have more diversity on the resume, and make money doing something that students are already good at.

5. Get a Student Worker Job.

There are always ways to find a student worker job on campus. Whether it’s in the IT department or the student athletic facility. Often, jobs can be within walking distance of a dorm room. The best part about a student worker job on campus is that the school is flexible with schedules. Schools understand students need to get their homework done—and/or visit Unity.

6. Drive with Uber.

If you enjoy driving and don’t mind providing a bit of customer service, consider driving with Uber.

As an Uber partner, students can set their own schedule. This mean you can work as much or little as you want. Earn money based on the rides provided.

To drive with Uber, students must be at least 21 years old  and have an in-state driver’s license, three years driving experience, a clean driving record and pass a criminal background check.

7. Become a Virtual Employee.

If stable work and income, in addition to flexibility with schedule, is what a student is looking for, this is the ticket.

One route to go about this includes becoming a “virtual recruiter” ( the middle-man that connects clients with talent). An average day would include drinking coffee, making calls, screening candidates, sourcing talent, market job postings, and drinking a cold beer. Not bad.

Another way to approach this would include becoming a virtual assistant. Here, one can implement the organization and communication skills acquired from taking care of priorities like homework, classes, societies, intramural sports and Greek Life.

Due to the surge of people going into freelancing and self-employment, work that requires marketing, data entry, IT needs, social media management, customer service and assistance, are rising.

Transcribing is another great avenue that doesn’t really require many prerequisites, and offers flexible schedules.

These jobs pay pretty well, between $15 to $25 per hour for general transcription. Higher rates are possible if you specialize in a medical or legal field.

Students can find these virtual-gigs through freelance broker sites like Upwork, Freelancer, Unity or SimplyHired.

For virtual assistant-gigs, look at Zirtual, PeoplePerHour and VA Networking.

For transcription, try TranscribeMe, Rev, Tigerfish and Quicktate.

8. Buy and Flip through eBay.

Fun Fact: People sell empty boxes on eBay.

What about game controllers and consoles? Empty toilet paper rolls? Beer cartons?

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Online sites like eBay can help students find the treasure collectors.

Think outside the box and invest in a 3D printer. Make free 3D models  from ThingiVerse, and sell them on eBay or similar auction sites.

9. Fantasy League Football.

Last but not least, one way to make money is to participate in fantasy football. Gather up 10 to 12 friends, and create a free-league using ESPN or Yahoo Fantasy. Have each friend pay $25 to play. Keep five dollars as an admin fee from each player. The rest of the money is a prize given to the winner.

It’s a fast way to make $60 to $80 for minimal work, and of course have lots of fun. It is still college, you know.

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Author: Paul Mason

Image: YouTube

Editor: Deb Jarrett

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