How can a Full-Time Student Make Money?

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When it comes to the questions, “how can a full-time student make money?” it’s all about time and time management.

As a full-time student, you’re taking 12+ credit hours. This may not seem like much, as 12 hours is only about 7% of your week.

You already know 12 credit hours means far more than 12 hours of time every week. Plus, most full-time college students take 15 or even 18 credit hours.

According to the University of Michigan-Flint, every credit hour equals 2 to 3 hours of additional work outside the classroom.

Your 12 credit hours just turned into 12 classroom hours per week plus an additional 24 to 36 hours of work outside the classroom. Full-time students don’t have a ton of time left to make money, but it’s not impossible.

Breaking Down your 168 hours

We all get 168 hours every single week. How you use these hours will determine your answer to the question, “How can a full-time student make money?”

If you manage your time well, you will have many options available to you when it comes to making money. Let’s look at what you have left after classes, homework, sleep, and a few extras.

For the example below, we will assume you are taking 15 credit hours over 5 total classes you will attend for 3 hours each per week. If you’re taking less or more, just make the necessary adjustments.

In addition, I am using 2 hours of extra work outside the classroom as, in my experience; most students don’t spend 3 hours per credit hour working outside the classroom.

The only students I have ever known to spend three or more hours per credit hour on work outside the classroom were in medical, law, or architecture programs. Of course, you know better than I do about your situation, so make adjustments, as needed.

Here’s the basic break down:

15 hours in classrooms
5 hours to get to and from class
30 hours homework outside classroom
49 hours of sleep (assuming 7 hours per night)
19 hours of extra-curricular activities
15 hours for meals
35 hours anything you want

If you plan correctly and use your time wisely, you will easily have 30+ hours to do make money. The key is time management.

How to Manage Your Time as a Full-time Student Trying to Make Money

I am not going to go into great detail, here, but I will give you a few tips that make an enormous difference for me.

Time management is a skill, not a personality trait or something you’re born with. If you can figure that out, you’ll be ahead of those thinking you’re either good at it or not.

Tracking

One of the keys to my success as a blogger and freelance writer is tracking. I track my time so I can see how I am spending it.

I went through Dave Ramsey’s budgeting class called Financial Peace University (I highly recommend it for ALL STUDENTS) and it made a world of difference for me. Yes, I understand money and finances better, but it also taught me how to budget my time, even though that’s not what it was meant for.

This class showed me how to track every dime I spend and I turned it into a time management budget for myself, as well. Tracking every single moment you spend doing anything will give you an accurate picture of where you’re spending your time.

Maybe you’re spending too much time sleeping or watching TV.

You might be the type of person that gets caught up in unnecessary conversations regularly.

It’s possible; you’re spending too much time getting from one place to another.

Tracking your time will show you where it’s going. This is step #1 when it comes to time management as it will show you where you spend your time, which is the key to figuring out how to find time to make money as a full-time student.

Adjusting your Time

After you track your time for a couple of weeks, you can start making adjustments. You might discover you sleep 10+ hours and you really only need 7. (Sleep is another subject and I am not trying to tell you how much sleep you need. Everybody is different.)

You might discover you spend too much time watching TV or with another meaningless task. If you want to make money as a full-time student, you probably cannot afford to waste time on meaningless things.

Tally up your time after tracking for two weeks and make your adjustments. Keep tracking your time and forgive yourself when you have a bad day or slip back into an old habit.

Habits take time to form and can be difficult to break. Be kind to yourself and don’t give up due to a bad day or two.

Use an App or Paper Planner

There are numerous time management apps out there. If you’re the type of person that does best with alerts on your phone, choose an app you like and use it to manage your time.

Those like me may prefer to write out a schedule with a paper planner. This is how I operate and the exercise of writing usually makes it a bit more solid in my head. Plus, it allows me to tell people, “Let me check my schedule and get back to you,” which means I don’t get talked into commitments on the spot.

50+ Ways a Full-Time Student can Make Money

Let’s get to the good stuff!

You came here to find a way to make money as a full-time student. Here are 50+ ways you can use the 30+ hours you have to make money as a full-time college student.

Ways a Full-Time Student can Make Money Online

Today’s world revolves around being online in one form or another. You can cash in on the internet explosion as a full-time student in several ways including:

Start a Blog – Download my Guide Here
Become a Freelance Writer – Download 100+ Websites That Pay Writers here
Become a Virtual Assistant
Sell Something on Fiverr
Become a Vlogger on YouTube Here
Sell Something on Etsy – T-shirts, mugs, etc.
Do Online Tutoring with Varsity Tutor
Become a Virtual Call Center Rep
Provide Voice-over Work
Get into Affiliate Marketing – Get ClickBank University here

There are several ways to make money online, especially if you’re willing to put in the work.

If you write and post to a blog daily, with the right monetization, you can build an income for now and for the future. One blog post every day will go a very long way to building traffic and making a profit online.

Freelance writing is one of the best ways for college students to make money online. You can make $20+ per hour writing for blogs, businesses, and other clients.

If I was a full-time college student and I wanted to make money, I would use writing to my advantage. A combination of freelance writing and blogging will allow you to make some money today while building your blog for tomorrow and the future.

Ways to Rent Your Stuff and Make Money as a Full-time Student

You can rent your stuff to make money, too. Here are a few ways you can rent something and make money as a student.

Rent a room in your home on AirBNB
Rent your car with Turo
Rent your things with Zilok or Rentything
Rent your Driveway or Garage with JustPark.com
Rent your Clothing with RentNotBuy

If you have things of value, you can rent them out and make pretty easy money as a full-time student.

Easy Ways Full-time Students can Make Money

There are a few other easy tasks you can do to earn money online and offline, including:

Use Swagbucks
Take Surveys Online – See List Below
Do Photography Jobs Online Here
Provide Market Research with MobileXpression or Neilson
Participate in User Testing Online
Use TaskRabbit to find Tasks you can do for others
Clean up Dog Pool for Others
Become a Postmate
Become an Uber Driver or Lyft Driver
Test Video Games Online Here

There are a ton of ways to make money by doing simple tasks online and offline.

List of Sites Offering Online Surveys for Cash

You can also take surveys online for free products and gift cards. Then, you can either use the products and gift cards or sell them on eBay for cash. Here are some of the surveys you can take right now for gift cards and free products.

Sell your Things to Make Money as a Student

You may not think you have anything to sell, but you probably have more than you think. Here are a few ways you can sell your things and make money as a full-time student.

Sell Class notes on StudySoup
Sell Old College Papers on GradeSaver
Buy and Sell from Garage Sales with Craigslist, eBay and Facebook Marketplace
Make Crafts, Printable, Greeting Cards, Etc. and sell on Etsy
Sell your Plasma with DonatingPlasma.org
Sell your hair on BuyandSellHair.com
Sell Old Video Game Accounts on PlayerAuctions.com
Sell Any Junk Mail you receive to the Small Business Knowledge Center
Sell your Artwork
Sell Stock Pictures You Take
Sell Any Old Textbooks You don’t need

You probably have a ton of things you can sell to make some quick cash as a full-time student.

Flexible Jobs for a Full-time Student Trying to Make Money

Of course, there are jobs you can do to make money as a full-time student, too. While not all jobs are flexible, some will provide plenty of flexibility to work around your class schedule.

Here are some of the best jobs to do as a full-time college student to make money.

Become a Restaurant Server
Babysit through Care.com
Pet sit through Rover.com
House Sit through Care.com
Clean Houses
Work on Campus (usually limited hours)
Work for a Catering Company
Paint Houses
Do Handyman Work
Work for a Moving Company
Work for a Temp Agency
Become a Tudor with VIP Kid or QKid
Become a Model
Be a TV/Movie Extra or even an Actor Here
Mystery Shop through Trendsource

If you’re a full-time student trying to make money, you now have several options to choose from.

Personally, I recommend starting with freelance writing and downloading my free list of 100+ websites that pay writers here.

I also recommend starting your own blog, which you can do with my free How to Become a Blogger guide here.

With these two methods, you can start making money fast by writing for others, while building an online income through a blog you post to every day or at least a few times a week.