For all the pub about how poor the average college student is, there are plenty of chances to earn some cash easily on campus. If nothing else, a student should be able to bring in enough money to not have to tap into savings or beg from their parents. One of the most popular options is the work-study program.

    In a work-study program, students can earn some money doing everything from cooking in the dining hall, overseeing the fitness center, or working in the library. In my opinion, the best work-study job would be one that allowed you to sneak some studying in to make double use of your time. In the library, you should be able to easily get some quality study time in .

    However, a possible downside of this work opportunity could be the fact that some schools prefer subtracting the earnings from tuition to actually giving out paychecks every week. This doesn’t help much in putting cash in your pocket. Plus, it’s hard to work week-in and week-out without any cash to show for it, even though every dollar that can be taken off of tuition is extremely helpful. I don’t know how many schools prefer the tuition-reduction payment over the paycheck (Simpson uses the paycheck method) but there are a few ways to manipulate it to get some income.

    First, you can use some savings you have tucked away as current income as you work to slowly whittle down your tuition bill. It might be tough seeing your savings account gradually shrink with each withdrawal, but when you use interest rates comparisons, it makes sense. What is your savings account earning, 1.5-2%? Let’s even say you keep it in CDs, and it is earning 5.25% a year. That’s great, but how fast is your student loan amount compounding? Probably in the 6-10% range, if not more. It’s really a simple concept. Money in the bank is going to grow slower than the money you owe. Use your savings if you can, do the work-study, and take out as small as student loan as possible.

    A very similar thing can be accomplished even without using savings. If you don’t have enough money in savings to use for income, you can borrow a little bit extra to use as spending money. Obviously this isn’t as desirable as the previous plan, as you are living on borrowed money, but it can still work out. Because your income is accumulating interest you will have to pay back much more than you actually use. To compensate for this, you should try to live on the least amount of borrowed money as possible, realizing that each premium coffee will ultimately cost you much more than the current $3.95. Another goal should be to knock off more than you borrow to spend. For example, you could borrow $1,000 spending cash while setting the goal to work enough to lower your tuition amount by $1,500-2,000.

    Whatever your plan of action is, a work-study program can benefit you greatly in helping to finance your college life.