If you’re a college student, having a side job can help you pay for some of your living costs, give you money to pay for school, or even help you learn skills that will help you in your future job.
While you’re in school, you’ll have to pay for a lot of things, such textbooks and going out with friends on the weekends. Having a side job in college to make some additional money might be a tremendous help.
The greatest side jobs for college students are ones that are flexible, don’t need a lot of expertise, and pay well enough to be worth the time. We list our top flexible jobs for students based on the sort of employment, how much money you can make, the advantages, and how much time you need to put in (since students are busy).
On-Demand Services
Services on Demand
One-demand services are side jobs where you may use an app on your phone to start making money. Ride sharing and delivery are ideal side jobs for college students since they are usually the most flexible—you can perform them whenever and wherever you choose.
Bring Things
How It Works: Delivery gig apps like DoorDash let you earn money by bringing people food, groceries, and other stuff.
The best part? Even if you don’t have a car, you can still make deliveries. Instead, just sign up to deliver bikes or scooters. You won’t have to fill up your petrol tank all the time, which will save you money. You’ll also get paid to work out.
Pros: The pay for gig delivery applications depends on the platform and the demand. Harvard Business Review says that the average delivery driver makes $20.33 an hour.
To get started, just download the app and join up in your region. A lot of these applications let you sign up as a bike or scooter driver, which is fantastic if you live near a college campus. You might find any of the following, depending on where you are on campus:
Walk Dogs
How It Works: If kids aren’t your thing, that’s ok because fur children need attention too. Dog owners who can’t make it home during the workday are constantly in need of dog walkers who can take their pup out for a potty break. This is a great side gig if you have a break between classes that you’d like to monetize.
Benefits: Dog walkers make around $17 per hour. This can be higher, though, if you’re able to walk multiple dogs at once.
Getting Started: You can find dog walking gigs on platforms like Wag and Rover. You can also work with a local dog walking agency to find shift work. Not only is it a great way to make extra cash, but it allows you to get paid to exercise too. Get started here:
- Rover
- Wag
Babysit
How It Works: Families are always looking for a good babysitter to look after their kids. If you don’t mind giving up some of your weekends, babysitting is an easy way to make extra cash – and get paid to study after you tuck the kids into bed too.
Benefits: Rates for babysitting can vary based on where you live. According to UrbanSitter, babysitters are making around $24 per hour for one child and $26 for two.
Getting Started: Register with a platform like UrbanSitter or Care.com to start offering your services. Once you’ve established yourself in your community, leverage word-of-mouth referrals to build consistent clientele. Get started here:
- UrbanSitter
- Care.com
House Sit
How It Works: Instead of being paid by the hour, house sitters are often paid per day. This can be an easy way to make extra cash around your existing schedule.
This can be a great gig for pet lovers, since apps like Rover allow pet owners to book housesits while they’re away from home. This can include checking in on a cat a couple of times a day or staying in the pet owner’s home for a few days at a time.
Benefits: The rate for housesitting can vary based on what you’re expected to do and how long you’ll be expected to house sit for. Rates can go as high as $150 per night.
Getting Started: Just like babysitting, word-of-mouth can help you land consistent house sitting gigs. Otherwise you’re going to need to use an app like Rover to combo gigs.
Do Odd Jobs
How It Works: Odd jobs are random things most people don’t want to do and are willing to pay someone else to do it for them. This can range from light housework to running errands to assisting a human owner with a big home improvement project.
For example, do you like putting together IKEA furniture or cleaning out gutters? If so there’s an opportunity for you to make extra cash around your school work.
As a side note, only 5.7% of handy-people are women. This is a huge untapped side hustle for women as some women would prefer a female to work in their home.
Benefits: Rates can vary depending on the job. A TaskRabbit assembling IKEA furniture in Austin, for example, can earn around $45 per hour.
Academic Services
You’re already a student, why not take advantage of what you already know as a side hustle? Academic-related services are an easy tie-in for students. In fact, when I was in college, I would tutor and also sell my class notes. Many colleges have note-taking and note-selling services right on campus!
Tutor
How It Works: If you’re a good student and an ace at helping your classmates with their homework, you could consider becoming a tutor. Many colleges have academic offices that hire student tutors but if you want more flexibility, you can offer your services through a tutoring platform.
Benefits: Tutors make around $22 per hour. More depending on what area you specialize in.
Getting Started: I would recommend starting local on-campus. But you can also go virtual. Chegg, Wyzant, and Varsity Tutors are a couple of examples of places where you can land tutoring gigs.
Editing and Proofreading
How It Works: Depending on your college major, you may be doing a LOT of writing and editing. This can be a valuable skill – for both your other classmates, and even small business owners in your community. Or take it one step farther, and website owners and bloggers everywhere.
This website has several editors, all who edit and proofread the content – making it better, checking for errors, and more.
Benefits: It might sound crazy, but the best proofreaders can make upwards of $4,000 per month or more!
Getting Started: Getting started is the hardest part. You can list your services online marketplaces like Fiverr or Upwork, you can leverage word-of-mouth referrals, or you can even jump into classes like Proofreading Launch.
Time Commitment: Medium to High Time Commitment
Research Assistant
How It Works: Student research assistant jobs are great flexible jobs for students since they’re typically on-campus work, they pay well, and they could even help you build a relationship with a professor in your field. Many college departments hire research assistants – look at science fields (especially health and cognitive science), political science, marketing, communications, and business.
Benefits: The average research assistant makes just above minimum wage at $20.50, according to Indeed.
Getting Started: To get started as a research assistant, you’re going to need to look around campus. Many departments post flyers and jobs, or you could connect with your professor or TA to see if they know of any positions.
Online Platforms And Marketplaces
Making money online is always a great opportunity. Sadly, many of the online platforms to earn and make money don’t earn much – but they also take very little time and have no commitments. This can be great for a college student to start a side hustle.
Personally, I used to open up my laptop before class and do surveys until class started. This let me earn cash and giftcards that I could use on campus for lunch!
However, as you get into more entrepreneurship-focused side hustles (like selling digital products), it can take more time. But since this is online, you can still do them from your dorm room!
Participate in Research Studies
How It Works: Participating in research studies is a great way to earn money on the side. Depending on the nature of the study, you might be able to complete it online or you may have to regularly report to an office on campus.
There are also a lot of paid survey websites where you can get paid to share your opinion!
Benefits: Compensation can be a lump sum based on completing certain phases of the study or an hourly rate for your time. For online surveys, you’re going to make a very tiny amount per survey.
Getting Started: Check bulletin boards or clinical study websites to see if any departments on campus are looking for research participants. For online surveys, check out these options:
- Survey Junkie
- Swagbucks
Time Commitment: Low to Medium Time Commitment
Participating in research studies is a great way to earn money on the side. Depending on the nature of the study, you might be able to complete it online or you may have to regularly report to an office on campus.
Check bulletin boards or clinical study websites to see if any departments on campus are looking for research participants. Compensation can be a lump sum based on completing certain phases of the study or an hourly rate for your time.
Sell Digital Products
How It Works: Creating and selling digital products is a great side hustle to consider because it allows you to earn residual income. One of my favorite digital products for college students to sell is class notes!
To earn even more money, consider creating a course. This can be around a specific hobby – like photography – or around a particular skill you have. While there’s an upfront time investment for creating digital products, once they’re available for sale you can generate income for months – or even years – to come.
Benefits: Digital product sales can vary depending on what you sell and the type of product it is. Templates on Etsy, for example, can sell for a few bucks while a course could sell for several hundred dollars. If you’re a student, selling your notes to a class could net you $10 every sale.
Getting Started: You can sell course notes, study guides, and templates on sites like Etsy and Gumroad. For note selling, there are special platforms that focus on it:
- Stuvia
- Nexus Notes
Time Commitment: Medium Time Commitment
Flip Stuff Online
How It Works: Do you have an eye for spotting treasure at thrift stores or estate sales? If so, flipping can be a great side hustle for you. In fact, this was one of our founder’s favorite side hustles when he was in college!
Benefits: Flipping stuff will vary depending on what you’re selling and the platform you’re selling on. Selling used clothes on Poshmark will probably be less lucrative than selling vintage toys on eBay (although it will probably be a lot easier to source used clothes).
Digital Skills And Freelancing
Freelancing is where you can get paid as a side hustle to create certain deliverables. For example, you get paid to create a logo, or write an article, or develop a calculator for a website. These side hustle options are great for students with the matching skillset. And online platforms make it easier than ever to connect with potential clients.
Freelance Writing
How It Works: Freelance writing is a online side hustle where you get paid for content creation, blogging, and copywriting. Basically someone needs an article, and you write it. If you have good writing skills, this is a fantastic side hustle.
Benefits: Freelance writers can earn anywhere from $0.01 a word to $1.00. Of course, the higher amounts of earning come with experience and expertise. A starting college student can expect to maybe get $50 per article. If you have specific knowledge and expertise in field, you can command more.
Getting Started: To get started, you should look at writing job boards or tools like Upwork. As you build a clietn base, you can start getting referred to others. Here’s our guide to how to get started freelance writing as a side hustle.
Graphic Design
How It Works: Graphic design works very similar to freelance writing, except instead of creating an article you’re creating graphics. This could be something simple like a logo, to something more complex like an infographic or full website.
Benefits: Graphic designers are in huge demand due to the rise of social media. On Upwork, Graphic Designers can charge as much as $145 per hour!
Getting Started: To get started with a graphic design side hustle, you’re going to want to create a profile on major sites like Fiverr and Upwork. Showcase a few of your past projects (or create a logo for yourself to highlight your skills if you don’t have much experience).
Web Development and Programming
How It Works: Web development and programming as a side hustle might not sound like a great gig for students, but depending on the project and skill level of the student, it can be very lucrative. With the internet, potential customers don’t even have to know you’re a college student, as long as you can deliver the results.
So what kind of web development works best? Things like creating a website for a small business, making a calculator, and other small projects are great for college students.
Benefits: You can expect to earn anywhere from $50 to $100 per hour creating websites on marketplaces like Fiverr.
Getting Started: To get started, you should first have your own website as proof you can do it. (Side note: every college student needs their own website anyway). Then, you can list your services on major sites like Fiverr or Upwork. You can also rely on word of mouth once you have. few small business customers.
Time Commitment: Medium to High Time Commitment
Become a Virtual Assistant
How It Works: Virtual assistants do a variety of administrative tasks that business owners and busy professionals don’t have time to do. This type of work can range from managing social media accounts to doing data entry.
Benefits: According to Upwork, the average social media manager earns between $14 to $35 per hour. Depending on what services you offer as a virtual assistant, your earning potential can vary.
Getting Started: Upwork and Fiverr are two websites you can use to find virtual assistant gigs that allow you to work on short-term projects. A major benefit of doing this kind of side hustle is that it allows you to get real work experience before you even graduate. You can put this type of work on your resume or use it to build a portfolio to show a future employer.