8 Way To Get Paid To Study In College

Scott Henderson, AFC®
4 min readAug 23, 2019

Hundreds of thousands of students across the country will be starting college within the next week. If you’re part of that group, here are a few ways to make some side income while you study.

According to a Huffington Post article, “Nearly 4 out of 5 college students are working part-time while studying for their degrees, averaging 19 hours a week.”

If you’re a college student who is trying to balance a part-time job and keep your grades up, is it possible to tackle two birds with one stone? Could you actually get paid to study?

Here are 8 ways you can make some extra income while studying for your classes at the same time.

1. Study Soup

Did you know you could get paid to take notes in your class?

Study Soup has made it possible for college students to take notes for their classes and turn around and make some extra money with those same notes.

You’re already taking notes for your class. Why not get paid for it?

This is what one college student had to say, “Taking notes really helped with my own grades,

sharing them to earn money was a no brainer.”

2. Find a part-time job on campus that gives you time to study

Many jobs on campus or even off-campus may allow you time to work on your homework. For example, if you’re in charge of managing the front desk and answering phones for an office, you may find yourself with some downtime to either mindlessly waste time on social media or tackle your homework.

As long as your boss is ok with it, you might as well use that free time you might have to work on your classes. I saw plenty of jobs like this when I was working in higher education.

3. Sell books on Amazon

When I was in college, I never worried about the cost of textbooks.

While a lot of my classmates were renting books because it was “cheaper” or paying full price for brand new books, I created an Amazon seller account and I would buy used books for the semester and then once the semester was over I would turn around and sell the used book. Sometimes for a profit.

Out of about 30 textbooks, there was only one that I couldn’t sell. This is more of a way to save money but it puts cash back into your pocket.

4. Become a tutor

The best way to learn is to teach others.

Sometimes we think tutors know everything because they always seem to know a lot about the subject. The reality is they’re just one step ahead of you and they’re still learning new things themselves.

So if you really want to learn a subject, become a tutor and get paid to teach other students the material.

You could even claim expert status on a few subjects.

5. Fellowships and Grants

Fellowships and Grants are perhaps the best way to get paid to study. You put in a little bit of work upfront that could potentially have a high return.

Once you receive a fellowship or a grant, they could cover the cost of a lot of things while you are in college. And you don’t even have to do too much, except for maybe a few requirements.

Get started applying for grants at your college and ask your academic counselor what opportunities are available.

6. Create a blog

If you’re really interested in a particular topic and you love learning and sharing information, why not create content and publish it on a blog?

If journalism is something that excites you, why wait until you graduate to start sharing your knowledge and passion to the world?

You never know what sort of opportunities could come from creating content and putting it online.

7. Pocket Points

Pocket Points is an app that you can download that will give you rewards for not using your phone while you are in class. It tracks your location so it will know if you are on a college campus.

Then, when you are sitting in class you can open up the Pocket Points app and then lock your phone and it will track the amount of time your phone is locked. The longer you don’t use your phone the more points you will get. You can use your points for things like free food and discounts at local places and online.

Use Promo Code: CbfEA

8. Inbox Dollars

Many classes, especially nowadays will allow you to have a computer in class with you. The nice thing about having a computer with you while you’re in class is you can actually open up a new tab, login to Inbox Dollars and get paid to watch TV.

But you don’t have to have the tab open to earn money. It could be a closed tab with the volume is off while your sitting in class, you can check in on it every once and a while to make sure you’re still getting rewarded for watching tv.

By the end of class, I would have earned a little bit of money. Nothing crazy, but at least I didn’t have to do a thing for it.

There you have it! There are 8 ways you can make some extra income while you study and spend time in college. To learn more ways to make some income on the side:

Read: The Ultimate Guide to Making Side Income in 2019

I hope you enjoyed this list! Let me know if you have other ideas.

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Scott Henderson, AFC®

Accredited Financial Counselor helping you reach #FinancialIndependence through simplifying. I write at https://simplifinances.com & https://qubemoney.com.