It is never an easy task reckoning how much you will need to cover your expenses in college.

No matter how much you try to anticipate every possible expense, life can always surprise you.

For many students, a part-time student job is worth exploring. However, many jobs available to students are of the minimum-wage variety.

What college students need are ideas that help them make a decent income, but without routine overwork. There are a few untapped niches that deserve a look.

Make inquiries at the campus recreation center

Recreation centers at mid-sized colleges provide sporting equipment rentals. Whatever sporting equipment students may need — bicycles, skis, golf clubs or boats — they get to rent them there at subsidized prices. College recreation centers usually hire students part-time to man the desk, and they tend to pay well. Lifeguarding, match refereeing, and even putting on a suit to play the college mascot for matches, are jobs worth exploring.

You could start a tutoring service right in your dorm

If there is an academic subject that you excel at, you have a saleable skill. Since any college has students who look for affordable tutoring, an advertisement could bring in opportunities. If you don’t feel comfortable offering help with academic courses, you could charge to help foreign students with their English. Freelance tutoring pays far better than any regular student job.

Try tech-support

Schools recommend laptops for students, but not every student using a laptop has the skills to fix problems when they turn up. Usually, they turn to friends who are willing to help. This isn’t always possible, however — especially during finals week and other busy times of the year. If you’ve prepared well in advance yourself, you may be able to offer your services to others at these times. The rest of the year, you may be able to apply to the school’s IT department to see if they need your skills.

Do you see an electric buggy zipping people around campus?

You could drive for Uber, but such a gig would take too much time. What you can do instead is to find a low-pressure driving job such as one that has you sitting behind the wheel of the campus electric buggy that transports visitors around. Your school’s parking and transportation department should have details on openings.

All you do is to stay alert

Does your college need busboys or even coordinators for its event dining services? Does the library need hands? All you need to do is to notice the jobs that people do around the school. Many of them are undemanding and require little more than a willingness to work. Once you learn to look, well-paying jobs only take a little time to locate.

Aimee Kirk has raised 4 kids rather successfully she feels! With her youngest now at college Aimee has some extra time on her hands and has taken to article writing to share some tips with other college kids, and their parents.

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