I Need Money for College Fast – What Do I Do?

Need Money for College fast
Photo by F Delventhal via flickr. Used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

For struggling students, juggling through college is never easy, especially with the skyrocketing cost of tuition fees, coupled with the scarcity of student loans.

Some have chosen to work part-time or take on odd jobs just to keep up with school fees, becoming more and more physically and mentally drained – until finally, they bow out from college highly frustrated.

So, apart from taking part-time jobs, what other options are available if you are a student saying, I need money for college fast?

Let’s explore some easier ways to earn money fast without getting you scarred going through college life.

Work for money from micro job sites

Advanced technology has created various opportunities on the web, including online jobs available for the picking.

They do pay reasonably. A word of caution, make sure you’re dealing with legitimate persons, not with some devious sites.

Explore Fiverr.com; they offer gigs or micro jobs requiring skills many students have. You can write or edit articles; create small database programs; do a translation or transcribing job; or answer a survey. Similar work and earning opportunities are offered by Gigbucks or Zeerk.

Sell items you don’t need

Some things in your home gather dust and don’t serve any purpose. Why not make money out of them instead? Sell your old CDs, childhood toys, kitchenware, outgrown clothes, costumes, books, furniture, jewelry, gadget and equipment. You may put up a sale in front of your home, or a virtual store in your Facebook account or eBay and Amazon.

You’d call the attention of more buyers if you post pictures and brief description of every item being offered. Instead of the usual selling, you may also offer your items for auction. Set up a minimum or starting bid price for every item.

Need money for college fast? Give something of yourself!

You may donate your blood or plasma and be compensated for your time. Healthy students can donate up to twice a week and be paid from $20 to $30 per visit. There are weight and age requirements for donors.

Male students who pass a rigid screening may also donate their sperm.

At least 80% of sperm donors are students; in fact, most sperm centers are situated near universities. This is due to the students’ youth and educational background that make them ideal donors.

Donors may earn as much as $80-$100 per specimen, and continue to be a donor for years.

Untreated hair can also be sold. Hair more than 10 inches long fetches from $100 to $1,500.

Do jobs on your phone or the internet

Answer surveys, check prices at grocery stores, and perform other minor tasks using your phone and special apps. Companies will pay you to do these small tasks using some of these apps – CheckPoints, WeReward and GigWalk.

Recycle and earn

Recycle and make money out of your trash – but you know that! Inquire from your locality’s garbage management office or check the directory for the location of recycling outlets. Different materials fetch different selling price.

Metals are sold by type and weight. Scrapped metals from cars sell for around $100 per ton. Aluminum rims will fetch $0.70 per pound; copper wires sell from $0.42 to $2.50; aluminium cans at $0.65 per pound; steel sells from $0.15 to $0.60 per pound depending of steel type.

Expired plastic cards – store card, gas card, gift card and discount card – can be sold at Gift Card Rescue or Gift Card Recycle.

Used cooking oil fetches up to $0.66 per gallon. Not much, but if you have gallons of them lying around, you’d be helping the environment by not throwing them down the drain.

Donate tennis balls and turn those yellow green bouncers into green bucks. Rebounces is a company that buys tennis balls for recycling.

Drop your obsolete computer hardware and accessories at a recycling center. There’s value on the metals, motherboard and the CPU of your junk, so turn your computer pile to cash.

It’s quite easy to search for “I need money for college fast!” Unless you’re a panhandler, however, you know that it’s not going to be fast or easy.

If there was such a thing, you know that it would not last forever or sustain you through college.

You will have to work for money or give something in exchange for it.

Once you find the means, you have to learn how to manage your money.

It’s always a good idea to stash away some reserves to allow you lead time when you need money again “fast”.

As you know by now, your options to earn are limited by the short time you have. So earn, save, and spend – in that order.

I hope this helps if you are saying, “I need money for college fast.”

Originally posted 2023-01-06 17:11:31.