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Career > Work

How to Make Money as a Broke College Student

Brooke Johnpier
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SBU chapter.

If you’re like me, you have a bunch of expenses you have to pay for because you have addictions, but you don’t have the monetary funds to do so. The reality of that set in for me at the end of my freshman year and I decided that I needed to find some ways to make money, and quick.

A couple weeks before school ends, I went to my computer and typed in the question that was burning into my brain: “how to make money quick.” The answer that came up everywhere was none other than surveys. Curious, I signed up to a couple of survey services and got to work. Long story short, I’ve made over $500 over the course of four months.

Each survey service is different, but they all have the same general principle: make money by sharing your opinions. Three of the services I use (Crowdtap, InboxDollars and LifePoints) have options for gift cards only. As an Amazon junkie, I choose the Amazon ones, but they have so many options for gift cards. Yes, that includes Starbucks. And no, I’m not joking.

The other two services I use (Survey Junkie and Branded Surveys) give me cash money. The former deposits money directly into my checking account and the latter is putting money towards a $50 Delta Airlines gift card because I have a boyfriend who lives in Alabama. But again, they can deposit money directly into your account, or you can have it done by PayPal, or just get more Starbie’s gift cards. Whatever you wanna do, really.

The surveys really do help out a lot, and so do the checks from family members on certain occasions, but let’s face it: they don’t cover everything. Tattoos are expensive and as someone who wants both arms completely covered, I need some more money. So before school started, I applied to like, 20 different jobs on campus. Good news! I got two of them!

My advice to you is this: apply, apply, apply. You’ll get at least one of them, and if the jobs are like mine, they’ll fit in during your normal day schedule, resulting in the evenings being off. They will help you make money and you’ll be able to afford your addictions.

Also, don’t be afraid to go to your Student Success Center (here it’s the CPRC.) I know what you’re thinking, “ugh, I’ve heard so much about it and it’s annoying. I don’t wanna make an appointment.” Yeah, I get that. I didn’t either. But trust me, they’ll hook you up and you’ll be able to make money, and who doesn’t like money?

So, if you’re broke, take some surveys in your spare time and make sure to apply to jobs on your college campus. Before you know it, your bank account will have more zeroes than expected.

Brooke Johnpier is a contributor to the SBU chapter of Her Campus. She writes about the more "manly" topics of the site, including automotive, motorsports, mechanical, technical, DIY, and anything hands-on. Brooke is also using this platform as her personal blog, of which she will talk about more personal things that she feels the world should hear about. Besides Her Campus, Brooke is a part-time motorsports journalist for Speedway Illustrated, a columnist for Race Pro Weekly and Dirt Track Digesr, and a staff writer as well as a social media promoter for The Podium Finish, where she is interning. Brooke is also a writer for TAPinto Greater Olean, WSBU The Buzz, and PolitiFact NY. Brooke is also involved with St. Bonaventure's literary magazine, The Laurel. Brooke is currently a sophomore at St. Bonaventure University where she is majoring in Sports Media with minors in Native American and Indigenous Studies & English. You can also find Brooke working as an assistant in the Koop Lab and upstairs in the office, making her money. In her free time, Brooke loves reading, going to the local racetrack, riding four-wheelers, working on cars, and riding in tractor trailers. Brooke is a music lover, and will talk about most any genre, especially her favorites which are rock and rap. Brooke is also a percussionist, a published author, and a women's rights activist. Brooke is also a member of several lineage organizations, and currently holds a national position in one of them. As well as writing for campus media, Brooke is involved with Faith in Fiction, Jandoli Women in Communication, the History Club, College Democrats, and the Indigenous Student Confederacy. A fun fact about Brooke is that she was the only female to ever be in the top 5% of the Automotive Technology class at the trade school she attended in her junior and senior years of high school.