College life is not easy. For most students, it's about the balance between your studies and earning enough to keep things going. Here is a list of college side hustles that can help you earn extra in your free time.
Student life is hard. It’s the time when you begin to realize that if you want independence, you have to put up with its inevitable counterpart – responsibility.
Managing your own finances, including college expenses, tuition fees, accommodation rent, textbooks, and basic living expenses, can be overwhelming if you’ve just moved out of your parent’s place.
Even if you study on a scholarship or have a comprehensive meal plan included in your student loans, you’ll find it hard to make ends meet.
You’ll find yourself fumbling for cash whenever you need to grab an extra bite or go out with friends on weekends.
Don’t worry; you can easily avoid such situations by trying out college side hustles. Here’s our list of great side hustles to help you through your student life on your own.
See Related: Side Hustle Stack review: Maximize Your Earnings with Side Hustles
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Best College Side Hustles
As a student, you must dedicate most of your time to studies and college projects. This means the ideal side hustles for you have to be flexible and easy, so they don’t hinder your actual career goals.
Maintaining this point, we’ve rounded up the best side hustle apps and options that any student can fit into his daily schedule. Check out our list of great side hustles below to pick the one that meets your needs.
1. Take Up Odd Jobs
Taking up odd jobs is one of the easiest college side hustles for students. Everyone needs something or the other done around their house, but not everyone has permanent help to do it for them.
If you’re good at stuff like furniture assembling, plumbing, home improvement, cleaning, or lawn mowing, you should do it for someone who needs it in exchange for money.
By simply spreading word of mouth in your neighborhood, you can make around $20-$50 for each task you complete.
Besides, some of the best side hustle apps let you find handyman tasks and odd jobs to complete in your area.
TaskRabbit
TaskRabbit is an easy-to-use platform where you can find jobs whenever you need extra cash. Just download the app for free and set your location and hours of availability.
After that, the app will notify you whenever there’s a job available in your area, so you can go for it if it meets your skillset. The estimated pay rate is displayed beside each offer so that you can make your choice depending on the value you’ll get for your time.
Thumbtack
Thumbtack is another accessible platform that lets you find odd jobs in your area. You can sign up on the platform for free, after which you’ll need to specify your skills and location.
The app will inform you if jobs are available through email or text messages. Similarly, you can set up a default bid on the app.
This way, the app will automatically place a bid on your behalf whenever a suitable job is available. When creating your customized bid, you can specify your hourly rate and available hours.
2. Deliver Food and Groceries
Another easy college side hustle idea is to deliver food orders from restaurants. With the accessible nature of food delivery services, everyone orders food now and then, so you can easily find a vacant spot at a local restaurant.
However, as a student, your daily schedule might limit the deliveries you can make for your local restaurants. For instance, if most places in your area close at around 10-11 pm, you’ll hardly make one or two deliveries a day.
Try to register yourself for restaurants that are open 24/7. This way, you can make nighttime or early morning deliveries and fit them into your schedule.
Better than that, you can get more daily delivery gigs if you sign up for food delivery sites. Usually, these sites have lots of restaurants registered, so you can extend your reach and bag more delivery gigs per day.
Besides food delivery, grocery shopping is another easy college side hustle. Here are some of the best side hustle apps for delivery gigs that you should try out.
See Related: Best Food Affiliate Programs
Postmates
Postmates is a reliable site that works in almost all major cities in the US. You can quickly become a member after going through their routine background check.
After that, you’ll get delivery jobs according to the working hours you specify on the app. The site claims to pay about $20-$25 for each delivery, including the tips you receive from your customers.
Ubereats
Ubereats is another legit site you can sign up for. They let you keep tips from your customers and also compensate for gas money.
The best part is, you can diversify your part-time job on this app and take up ridesharing gigs as well, along with food deliveries.
Similarly, while other food delivery apps pay per hour, Ubereats pays you per delivery. So you’ll get compensated even if you make multiple deliveries in an hour.
Grubhub
Grubhub also pays its workers for every hour they spend making deliveries for their platform. The popular delivery site works in almost all major cities in the US, so you can easily get delivery jobs in your area.
They claim to pay around $10-$15 per hour. You can also keep the tips you get from your customers, making this a profitable college side hustle.
Instacart
Instacart is a grocery delivery app where you can register to get grocery orders directly from customers. You should have your own vehicle and the ability to lift around 50 lbs to register for this college side hustle.
Once you’re a member, the app will notify you whenever there’s an order available in your area. They’ll pay you a percentage of the grocery bill, along with a basic pay rate for every delivery.
Moreover, you get to keep the tips you receive from your customers.
Shipt
Shipt is another grocery shopping platform for those looking for easy college side hustles. You can maintain a flexible schedule and take orders whenever you’re free.
The best way is to shop for someone else’s grocery list when you’re doing your own shopping. You’ll get a percentage of the shopping bill, and standard remuneration for every order.
This way, if you add the tips you receive, you can easily make enough to pay for your monthly grocery.
3. Become a Tutor
Tutoring is a great college side hustle for students who want to give back to society. You can get paid to tutor younger children who live close to your campus and help them with their homework and assignments.
Besides that, some of your peers and classmates may also need help understanding concepts and keeping up in class. While most students would typically do this for free, there’s no harm in getting some benefit for your precious time.
Apart from academic subjects, you can give people lessons for something you’re good at. These include sports, fitness, or even music lessons.
Most people want their children to enhance their creative side, so you can easily cash your talent by tutoring them.
If you have trouble finding students in your area, you can try out these side hustle apps to find tutoring jobs.
Fiverr
Fiverr is a legit freelance platform that connects employers with talented people like you. Here, you can advertise the services you offer and set your timings and rates.
Once you get your first client on the app, all you have to do is maintain your rating and create a regular workflow. You can get more flexibility on this platform by teaching remote students, making it one of the best college side hustles.
Coursera
Coursera is an online marketplace for informational resources. If you think you’re good at teaching a subject or a skill, you can create an e-book or course and post it on the website.
Courses that provide valuable information sell at about $50-$200 on the platform. You can boost your resources by advertising them on social media sites or publishing a guest post on a popular blog from your niche.
This is a great side hustle to start during the holidays and continue earning a passive income for the rest of the year.
4. Sell Old Books
As a college student, you probably have lots of textbooks that you won’t use anymore. Similarly, other students like you might also have lots of valuable books sitting on their bookshelves.
That’s where our next idea for profitable college side hustles comes in. You can quickly sell your own books or old books you acquire from others on Amazon and eBay websites.
Try visiting auction sites, yard sales, and campus sales to acquire old, used books at cheap rates. After that, you can fix these books up and sell them online for a profit.
Besides primary online marketplaces, you can visit sites like Bookscouter to sell used textbooks for high prices.
5. Become a Campus Tour Guide
There’s a lot of nostalgia and passion associated with the campus you study in. If you think you know your college campus better than anyone else, becoming a campus tour guide is one of the best college side hustles for you.
College campuses are visited by lots of prospective students and their families every year. You can show them around the campus while imparting your school’s culture and identity creatively.
Besides that, you can even add your personal anecdotes and experiences to make the tour enjoyable. Check if there’s a tour guide position available through your college admin office.
Most colleges pay their tour guides an hourly wage for the job. The best part is, you won’t have to step out of the campus while earning some extra money.
6. Sell Your Notes
Yes, you can sell your notes for hard cash to students who need them.
We know what you’re thinking. It is good to help people unconditionally, but what’s the harm in earning a few extra bucks if people are willing to pay?
If you’re good at creating summarized notes, you can advertise them on your campus and earn money. Besides your current year’s notes, you can even sell your older notes to younger students and maximize your earnings.
Also, try putting up a catchy advertisement on social media, and spread word of mouth to attract prospective buyers towards your merchandise. Also, you can use sites like StudySoup to promote your notes and sell them to students worldwide.
7. Sell Crafts on Etsy
If you don’t want to indulge in a side hustle related to academics, you can find other college side hustles that put your creative side to use. For example, if you’re an art hobbyist, you can sell your work on Etsy.
Start by creating your own store and customize it according to the nature of your art. You can then advertise art and craft projects like paintings, hand-made cards, personalized mugs, T-shirts, and wall hangings to earn some side income.
The site charges some seller fees to showcase your items on the platform, which will cut down on your profits. However, you can earn from this side hustle while doing what you love, so it’s basically free money.
8. Take Pictures
Millennial students cannot live without clicking pictures of every moment they experience. But did you know that selling photographs is one of the most popular college side hustles these days?
Whether you’re a professional or an amateur, you can easily sell pictures on sites like Shutterstock and iStock. Make sure your images are eye-catching and high-quality to get the best rates.
Additionally, sites like Foap let you upload your pictures for contests sponsored by famous brands. You can participate in these contests to earn great rewards and the chance to establish yourself as a photographer in the future.
Final Words
That concludes our list of the best college side hustles for students who need some extra cash in their pockets. While there are lots of great side hustles you can find online, as a student, you’ll need something that doesn’t drain you out and fits into your schedule.
The side hustle options we’ve listed above let you earn on your own terms without compromising your studies.
Remember, while working for online companies, check the user reviews and ratings for the site to avoid wasting your precious time.
If you have trouble finding a side job, start by listing down the things you’re good at. After that, scrounge the internet to see if you can turn your talent into a product or use it to help others for a price.