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Poor College Student: Will Perform Non-Sexual Tasks for Money

Brendan

Guerilla Urbanist
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So what are some things you did as a poor college student for extra money? What kind of jobs did you do? Anything you remember as being particularly worthwhile and fun? How did you get through college without just borrowing like it was going out of style?

So, here I am in Orange County, California. I hate this place, and I have a dislike for Los Angeles that borders on mild to strong. Traffic, smog, no mass transit... Dreadful.

So, I'll be heading back to New Jersey for a week. Then I'm headed to Georgia to take a month long internship building experimental, sustainable housing with Earthship Biotecture. Earthship Biotecture was founded by Mike Reynolds, and a year ago in Environmental Science I learned about him and his firm (which does lots of projects in third world countries, for instance they just went to Haiti to help build permanent housing to help people displaced by the earthquake). Upon learning about these projects I gained a huge interest in architecture, and it's what spurred me to study it. So this is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

At this stage, I'm not sure if I want to stay strictly with architecture, or if I'd rather go the Urban Planning route, but I've got time to decide. After I'm done with this build, I plan on applying to Rutgers and NJIT to finish my undergrad for either of these subjects. And while I'm doing undergrad, I'd like to study abroad.

A friend of mine recently studied in South America for nine months with the School for International Training's study abroad program. They have a program for Sustainability and Environmental Action in Australia which I would love to take advantage of, as environmental issues have a higher profile in Australia because of their lack of water and susceptibility to changes in weather patterns (their climate is governed almost exclusively by El Niño as opposed to actual seaons). As their sociopolitical climate is somewhat similar to ours, many solutions pioneered in Australia could be readily transplanted to the United States. The semester abroad is about $20,000, and I want to start saving up as much money as I can now, so that I have to borrow as little as humanly possible when it comes time to pay.

So, what kind of stuff did you do for money when you were in college?
 

Patches

Klingon Warrior Princess
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When I was an undergrad, I wrote papers for people for money. Research papers for science classes, or Analysis papers for English courses. You would be shocked at how many people will pay upwards of 20$ per page for an A paper. The problem with getting a paper online is that you can be easily caught for plagiarism. But if someone writes an original paper for you? You're safe as long as you don't tell anyone who wrote it.
 

Such Irony

Honor Thy Inferior
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Volunteer for psychological experiments. Some will pay you. I never did this myself but I know students who made a substantial amount of money that way.
 

Oom

Your time is gonna come.
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I don't really know. I didn't come to this thread with advice. Instead I liked the subtlety in the title the most. Yay, for that eh?

I suppose you could work in a lab on campus or something, maybe get an internship?
 

Patches

Klingon Warrior Princess
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What kind of experiments? I'm interested...

If he's talking about the kind of stuff I volunteered for... Just simple tasks for undergrad research.

For example, once I was asked to answer 20 questions (On a 1-10 scale of 'like' and 'dislike') having to do with movie genres, feelings towards various news stories, etc. Then they had me spend like 5 minutes watching a youtube video or something that was a scene from a movie involving violence toward women. Then I was asked to answer the same questions again. The questions were meant to test if watching violent movies/videos make you feel more violent, more or less.


Another psych student was testing 'The prisoners dilemma' which is when 2 prisoners are questioned seperately. If prisoner A confesses and prisoner B doesn't, Prisoner B is fucked. If they both don't confess they both win. They assigned point values to the decisions. Your goal was to get the most points. The obvious choice is that everyone should not confess. But if your partner confessed and you didn't, you lost points. So they just paired us in groups of 2 and made us do 20 rounds of choosing to confess/remain silent.

They never took very long, and most of them involved completing menial tasks on a computer.
 

Zarathustra

Let Go Of Your Team
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Messages
8,110
Sell drugs. I never did, but plenty of my friends paid their way through college by doing so.

Also, you can sell your sperm to a sperm bank, or get a spinal tap and sell your bone marrow (i think that's what they take) for $. I know a lotta guys who did both of these.

If you were a chick, you could just strip...
 
A

A window to the soul

Guest
Intern programmer for a computer corp. I went on three interviews due to some drama that ensued and so it goes with dreamers like me. My employer at the time, by 'contract', was also my direct hire for the internship... erh, uh yeah, attempting to double dip? I didn't see the moral dilemma, I was working the hours onsite at two different locations for each role. Just being paid differently. Heck, somehow I always seem to get a little too creative in my endeavors... oopsies. Well, I told all parties involved how it was going to be and like the wave of a magic wand, so it was. I prayed a lot, so God answered prayers is all. Just telling ya, dare to dream. It works for me. If you know that you know that you're the best at something, don't be afraid to take risks and don't settle if they look you square in the eyes and tell you how much they're gonna pay you because you're so young and inexperienced. Do the research on the market pay. Be assertive and confidently tell them what you're really worth. That's my best advice here. It will take you far in life.
 

mmhmm

meinmeinmein!
Joined
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i was a telemarketer. selling last wills and testaments.
well, the service. i'd cross check the census to determine
where i'd target. but i think it was my giggles that
contributed to my leads.
 

Amethyst

¡MI TORTA!
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I'm still a poor college student...

Here's what I've done:
Sold all of my parents unwanted things
Hired by people locally who were 'hoarders' and helped them snap out of it and get their life back together. That pays nice.
Babysit for doctors.
Lifeguard.

Things I'm considering doing once the debt hits hard in the face:
Nude Modeling for Art
Stripping
Selling virginity (only if I still have it by 25, and if I can sell it for a million)
Maybe selling eggs? They go for 30k sometimes, but considering what I've done to my body, I don't think I could sell them. :(
 

miss fortune

not to be trusted
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I worked at a liquor store, coordinated a few wine and cheese parties for groups (the type of people who don't know what cheese one should eat with a cab for instance :thelook:) and whipped people for money :)
 

Patches

Klingon Warrior Princess
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Maybe selling eggs? They go for 30k sometimes, but considering what I've done to my body, I don't think I could sell them. :(

I've looked into this before, actually. All the clinics that really pay very decent sums of money have a lot of requirements. The highest paying one I found required you to be attending an ivy league school, be at least 5'10, and pretty much be part of the Aryan Master Race. Not to mention you have to take a bunch of fertility hormones. You can't have any history of diseases/disoders in your family (like heart disease or cystic fibrosis). If you have ANYONE in your family with ANY kind of genetic disorder you're pretty much out.

I don't even have to bother going to a clinic to know they wouldn't touch my eggs with a 10 foot pole.
 
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