14 Best Part-Time Jobs for College Students

Are you in school and looking for the best part-time jobs for college students? For many students, college is your first real taste of independence, and that means you might be dealing with the financial realities of being an adult.

Finding a good part-time job can help you avoid or offset student loan debt, have spending money for going out, save for travel, and more. This is a list of part-time jobs that have flexible hours and pay well for the work you're doing. 

1. Deliver for DoorDash

Get paid $23/hour while on delivery

Working as a DoorDash driver can be one of the best part-time jobs for college students who have access to a car, bike, or scooter. Dashers (those who deliver for DoorDash) set their own hours and deliver food from local and chain restaurants. And you keep 100% of your tips.

You’re paid for each delivery, not a set hourly rate. But the national average for DoorDash drivers is $23 per hour while on delivery.

If you’re interested in signing up, here are the DoorDash driver requirements:

• Must be 18 or older
• Have access to a car, motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle in some cities
• Have a driver’s license and auto insurance (if delivering with car or motorcycle)
• Social Security number if delivering in the U.S. 
• Consent to criminal background check
• Have no major driving violation in the past 7 years

2. Shop for Instacart

Make $15-$20/hour

Instacart is an incredibly popular grocery delivery service, and it’s a good part-time job for college students who go to school in busy urban or suburban areas. The busiest hours in Instacart are Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and all day on Saturday and Sunday, so it probably won’t conflict with your class schedule.

Instacart hires two different types of shoppers:

• In-store shopper: You work in stores only and are considered a part-time employee of Instacart. In-store shoppers can work no more than 29 hours a week and make around $14/hour
• Full-service shopper: You will be considered an independent contractor, so you can work as many or as few hours a week as you want. Full-service shoppers make $15-$20/hour on average, and you will need access to a vehicle.

The requirements to work for Instacart are nearly identical to DoorDash, so if you’re thinking about DoorDash, Instacart may also be worth checking out. 

3. Shipt

Make $15-$20/hour

Since we’re talking about food delivery as some of the best part-time jobs for college students, we have to talk about Shipt. This is another grocery delivery service that’s blown up since the start of the pandemic, and Shipt is now owned by Target.

Shipt shoppers make $15-$20/hour and can work in over 5,000 cities throughout the U.S. You can deliver between the hours of 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., so there are definitely hours that fit with a college schedule.

4. Academic tutor

Get paid $20-$40/hour

Academic tutors can make surprisingly good money; you can make $20-$30/hour tutoring in subjects like math, science, foreign languages, or English. This is a good part-time job for college students who are located in suburban areas with K-12 schools. You can work on your own and reach out to local schools or advertise your services on NextDoor.

You can also list your services on a platform like Wyzant and have a much wider reach. Wyzant tutors set their own rates and retain 75% of their posted hourly rate. 

5. Work as a babysitter or nanny

Make $10-$20/hour

I have a friend who worked as a nanny in college and made $250/week watching two kids. She picked up the kids from school, fed them a snack, and helped them with their homework. In all, it was about 3-4 hours per day or 15-20 hours per week.

For those who are interested, you can easily find babysitting and nanny gigs that work with your class schedule because later afternoons and evenings are the most in-demand times for parents. You can make around $10-$20/hour, and some families even pay nannies to travel with them during the summer.

You can check our Care.com to list your services and find families near you.

6. Sell printables on Etsy

Make $50-$500/month

If you’re creative and have some graphic design skills, then this is one of the best part-time jobs for college students because it can be fairly passive. See, printables are digital files that you create once and can sell over and over again without having to create or ship individual products.

You’d be creating and selling digital files for things like:

• Invitations
• Party decor
• Printable home decor
• Signs with inspirational quotes
• Stickers
• Planner pages
• Stationery
• Party games

7. Walk dogs or pet sit with Rover

Get paid $15-$20/hour walking dogs and $25-$45/day for pet sitting

Rover is an online platform that connects pet owners with caregivers in their area, and this is a good part-time job for college students because you can set your own rates and hours. It’s also a great way to spend time with animals if you’re missing your pets back home!

You can make money walking dogs, pet sitting, doing drop-in visits, and if you have your own place, you can make the most money by offering in-home boarding — just make sure it's okay with your landlord.

Here are some average rates on Rover across the U.S.:

• Seattle, WA: Dog boarding $45-$60/night, drop-in visits $20-$3/visits, dog walking $20-$25/walk
• Charleston, SC: Dog boarding $25-$40/night, drop-in visits $13-$20/visit, dog walking $15-$20/walk
• Kansas City, MO: Dog boarding $20-$40/night, drop-in visits $12-$17/visit, dog walking $15-$20/walk
• Houston, TX: Dog boarding $30-$40/night, drop-in visits $15-$20/visit, dog walking $15-$20/walk

This could be a really fun part-time job, but it’s serious business taking care of someone else’s pets. Not only do you need to really love animals, you have to know your limits (like if you’re not comfortable with big dogs or walking multiple pets at once) and list your services appropriately.

8. Become a digital marketing manager

Make $1,000 to $1,500/month

When I say digital marketing manager, I’m talking about running Facebook ads for small businesses. And if you think this job sounds like it requires a degree in marketing, trust me, it doesn’t. 

Running Facebook ads is creating highly targeted ad campaigns that drive traffic to your client’s business. As the largest social media community, Facebook is a great place for small businesses to grow, but very few have fully tapped into the market. That’s because many business owners lack the time or energy to learn how to create and execute an effective ad strategy.

That’s where you come in! 

BTW: This job would look amazing on resumes after graduation. “Why yes, I did start my own marketing agency while taking a full course load.” And because it’s mostly based online, you can keep your business going while you’re on break.

9. Proofread in your spare time

Get paid $15-$25/hour

Proofreaders put the finishing touches on essays, web copy, sales pages, emails, blog posts, tweets, and a lot more. Because errors can make written content stand out as unprofessional, this is an in-demand skill. 

This is one of the best college jobs if you’re the kind of person who is meticulous with grammar and punctuation. It’s also incredibly flexible because it’s based online, so you pick when and where you work.

For more on working as a proofreader, check out the article Proofreading Jobs: Make Money Pointing Out Mistakes. You’ll learn:

• What exactly proofreaders do
• How to start working as a proofreader
• How much you can expect to make
• Where to find jobs

10. Become a Pinterest virtual assistant

Make ~$500/month per client

You’re probably familiar with Pinterest as a place for finding DIYs, recipes, workouts, style boards, and much more. But online business owners leverage Pinterest’s wide reach to grow their online traffic.

For example, if you found the M$M site from Pinterest, there’s a reason — we have someone who creates pins and boards, keeps a pinning schedule, and optimizes the M$M Pinterest account.

Pinterest virtual assistants (VAs) are a valuable asset for business owners in the same way digital marketing managers are. Business owners lack the time to learn and take advantage of all of the available traffic-building strategies. 

11. Take online surveys

Make $1-$5/hour

Online surveys don’t pay very well compared to other part-time jobs on this list, but they are so easy and so flexible. You can take online surveys in between classes, before you head out to a party, while you’re watching TV, and so on. 

Brands pay survey companies to collect market research data that helps them create better products and more effective marketing campaigns. This is why survey companies are willing to pay you for your time.

Here are my top recommendations for paid online surveys:

• Branded Surveys: Surveys pay $0.50 to $3 on average, and you can get paid via bank transfer, PayPal, check, or gift card.
• Survey Junkie: Earn $1-$3 per survey, and Survey Junkie pays via PayPal cash, bank transfer, or gift card.
• Opinion Outpost: Pays $0.50 to $5 per survey, and you’re paid with PayPal, Amazon gift card, or Visa gift card.

M$M tip: Read 13 Surveys That Pay Cash Instantly for more recommendations.

12. Work as a sports referee

Earn $25/hour

Did you know that referees can make around $25/hour refereeing soccer games or working as a Little League umpire? Surprisingly, many sports don’t require that you have any background playing the sport, but you will need to know the rules really well.

Because sports run seasonally, you can make the most money by signing up to ref more than one sport. For example, you could ref outdoor soccer in the fall, indoor soccer in the winter, and baseball in the spring.

You can find these jobs through local community centers or sports clubs. If there’s a sport you really love, you can even look into finding some coaching positions, too!

13. Participate in research studies

Pay varies from $75-$1,000+

Research studies and clinical trials are used by universities, drug companies, and medical companies to study diseases, medicines, and treatments. There are studies for individuals with certain diseases or conditions, but lots of studies simply need healthy adults to participate.

I have friends who regularly participated in studies, and a typical study paid $600-$800 and ran two to three weekends in a row. You may stay overnight at a research facility for a couple of nights and go back in for regular blood draws after the study is completed.

If you’re interested, check out ClinicalTrials.gov to search through a database of over 300,000 different research studies around the world to find studies you might be eligible for. The site is run by the United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.

14. Find an on-campus job

Your school probably has a number of good part-time jobs that are designed specifically for college students. These jobs are created with a student’s schedule in mind, so it’s not like a restaurant that won’t care about finals week or that massive paper that’s due in two days but you still haven’t started.

Another thing that’s nice about these jobs is that if you’re living on campus, getting to and from work will be super easy. 

Here are several on-campus jobs:

• Peer tutor: You can work as a tutor for your school’s educational resource center or post flyers around campus to advertise your services. You can tutor academic coursework, but don’t forget about any musical or language skills you might have, too!
• Brand ambassador: Big brands (like Coca-Cola, RedBull, PINK, Amazon Prime, Bumble, and Southern Tide) pay students to promote their brands on campus. You can find these opportunities through your campus services offices or by contacting brands directly to see if there are openings.
• Research assistant: Departments ranging from psychology, history, and biology offer hourly or stipend jobs for students to help with research duties. This can also be a great way to build relationships in the field you’re interested in pursuing after graduation. You can contact individual departments for more information.
• Library attendant: You can be checking books and other materials in and out or helping students find research materials. It’s a quiet job, and you might even get a chance to get some homework done — possibly the perfect job for those with intense course loads.
• Campus tour guide: This is a great job for high-energy, enthusiastic students who know their school really well. You may be leading large groups or doing one-on-one tours and answering questions from potential students and their parents. Just be prepared to memorize a lot of information!
• Social media assistant: As colleges become more media savvy, they need students to manage their social media accounts. Your college’s marketing department is a good place to look for these job listings.

Those are just a few options, and most colleges have on-campus job boards that you can check for listings. And some of these are eligible jobs if FAFSA qualifies you for work-study. The only real downside is that these jobs pay closer to minimum wage than a lot of our other options.

How to pick the best part-time job while you’re in college

Between keeping up with your courses, your social life, extracurriculars, and the ever-elusive full night of sleep, you have a lot on your hands. Here are a few tips for picking a part-time job that fits well with your busy schedule:

Tip #1: Think about the location

If you don’t have a car, your campus isn’t walkable or bikeable, or there’s a lack of good public transportation, your job possibilities might be more limited. Finding remote work may be your best option, and online-based jobs also mean you can keep working when you go back home during school breaks.

Tip #2: Take a good look at your workload and class schedule 

Many of the jobs on this list let you set your own schedule, and I listed those for a reason — you get to pick a schedule that works for you. More traditional jobs like waiting tables or working retail won’t always keep your courses in mind when scheduling your hours.

Tip #3: Be realistic about how much you’ll make with different part-time jobs

Out of all of the best part-time college jobs on this list, paid surveys and on-campus ones pay the least. You might find that they’re the easiest, but there are definitely higher paying options. Take a look at your budget and figure out how much money you want to make with your part-time job.

Tip #4: Think about the careers you might want to explore

While your life right now is focused on getting through college, the end goal is always to find a career you love. If you can find something like a paid internship in a field you’re interested in exploring, that would look great on your resume, though those jobs are limited and highly competitive. 

Good part-time jobs for college students: The final word

Each of these jobs has some benefits, and you know how to pick one, so I’m just going to end with a piece of advice: Don’t overextend yourself.

Burnout is a real threat to college students, and that’s why I recommend jobs like DoorDash or Instacart. The pay is decent, and you can work as much or as little as you’d like.

Working in college can be a serious help, but don’t forget to take care of yourself. Take a break when you need one. Get a full night of sleep every once in a while. Take time for self-care. And don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.

Remember, you’ve got this.