Earning extra income?

[Bones_gal85]

Hi everyone!

 

I'm starting a PhD program in the fall, and while I am fully funded, it's still going to be REALLY tight financially for me.  Anyone here have any advice on how to pick up extra $ while going to school?

 

Thanks!

[microarray]

I just started doing surveys on mturk.com 2 weeks ago. See reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/HITsWorthTurkingFor/ to maximize your experience. So far I've been making around $50 a week. It's something easy you can do at night, at home when relaxing to subsidize your income. 

[biisis]

Canadians can also get in on the surveys-for-cash thing over here: https://legerweb.com/VOQK2

You could also find work on campus in the library (shelving books is a great way to relax after a cognitively heavy day) or even through the Office of Students with Disabilities (some schools pay grad students to take notes, proctor exams, or tutor). On campus work is great because there's usually more flexibility/understanding when it comes to your own time constraints.

[ERR_Alpha]

One of my old professors recommended tutoring. He said he was charging something like 50 an hour for physics tutoring while he was in grad school. Theres a bunch of websites for tutoring you could list on.

[reinhard]

One of my old professors recommended tutoring. He said he was charging something like 50 an hour for physics tutoring while he was in grad school. Theres a bunch of websites for tutoring you could list on.

Wow, and people pay for it?

[TakeruK]

How much people pay for (physics) tutoring depends on the location. I know grad students who can charge $50 or higher in New York City. At my MSc school, the typical rate for a graduate student was $30-$35/hr. I charged that much when I was in grad school and $25/hr when I was an undergraduate. 

 

I often see a lot of people who need to take the MCAT ask for Physics tutoring and they often say they are willing to pay $40-$50/hr. I charge "exam prep" type tutoring at a higher rate because 1) the market rate for this type of tutoring is higher (MCAT prep courses are really expensive) and 2) it takes more work for me to figure out what the MCAT asks than to tutor a course I have already took and tutored for many years.

 

Finally, if your school has students who come from better off families, you might get some students who are willing to pay because their parents are sending them money for the tutoring. For physics tutoring specifically, I find that most often, the people who care enough to spend a bunch of money on going from like a 80% to 95%+ in physics courses are pre-medical students. Personally, I feel more satisfaction in helping an average student (who is taking physics for a science requirement) go from a C- to a B. But, I take any clients who are willing to pay as long as they agree to my ethical tutoring principles (i.e. I'm not going to do their homework for them). 

[lgwslp]

I just started doing surveys on mturk.com 2 weeks ago. See reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/HITsWorthTurkingFor/ to maximize your experience. So far I've been making around $50 a week. It's something easy you can do at night, at home when relaxing to subsidize your income. 

 

How do you take the surveys??

[bakalamba]

I've tutored on my own and through companies while studying and in between jobs. It's a good gig, particularly if you're in STEM fields and are decent at tutoring those subjects. I'm not, so I ended up tutoring college writing and test prep (GRE, SAT). You get more money if you tutor independently, but you'll have to put in some effort to find clients (posting flyers, referrals, selling yourself). A tutoring company, even online ones, will take a cut, but some are really good at delivering students to you and selling you as an "expert" or whatever. You just have to meet up with the student. Another benefit of working for a company is that they often source jobs or extra work from their tutors: I ended up writing blog entries, test database questions, and website content for one of the companies I worked for - it was easy money and they ended up paying more money for that than if I looked for writing work elsewhere.

 

I also taught test prep for a major company. The pay is decent considering their curriculum is idiot-proof and you spend almost no time outside of class preparing or grading. With the company I was with, you taught a few big classes (very manageable when it's GRE, GMAT, or MCAT, but I hear less appealing when it's 25 high schoolers studying for the SAT), and moved up to tutoring, which payed more. I was making $20-25, and you make more with tutoring. The company delivers students, you just show up. You just have to deal with the ethical issue of increasing the income gap in higher ed by helping rich kids or rich adults get into college. But I guess nearly all tutoring has that conundrum.

 

Other than that, I can't recommend online surveys, transcription, or Amazon Turk jobs. They pay so little for what you end up doing - in my experience, the price per job was enticing, but when you calculate how much you'll make in an hour, I could be making much more tutoring.

[maelia8]

I have experience in ESL teaching, so I do ESL tutoring, including for the TOEFL, and I really enjoy it. I charged about $20-25 an hour (my pupils are mostly international students or immigrants who want to become citizens, and I felt bad about charging any more than that). It makes me feel good to know that I'm helping make someone's life easier by improving their language skills in a language they need on a daily basis.

[PhDerp]

Participate in on-campus research. Check psychology and linguistics departments for these opportunities. Sometimes they're pretty fun!

The best one I ever did was with my kinesiology experiment. Made $100 and a year-long gym membership to do certain weight-lifting exercises under supervision. So awesome!

[microarray]

How do you take the surveys??

 

You have to sign up for a worker account first, which takes a few days to be approved. I should add that most of the surveys that I take are for academic research.

Edited May 5, 2014 by microarray

[reinhard]

You have to sign up for a worker account first, which takes a few days to be approved. I should add that most of the surveys that I take are for academic research.

Urgh, but they take so much time and pay so little. Not very efficient.

[reinhard]

How much people pay for (physics) tutoring depends on the location. I know grad students who can charge $50 or higher in New York City. At my MSc school, the typical rate for a graduate student was $30-$35/hr. I charged that much when I was in grad school and $25/hr when I was an undergraduate. 

 

I often see a lot of people who need to take the MCAT ask for Physics tutoring and they often say they are willing to pay $40-$50/hr. I charge "exam prep" type tutoring at a higher rate because 1) the market rate for this type of tutoring is higher (MCAT prep courses are really expensive) and 2) it takes more work for me to figure out what the MCAT asks than to tutor a course I have already took and tutored for many years.

 

Finally, if your school has students who come from better off families, you might get some students who are willing to pay because their parents are sending them money for the tutoring. For physics tutoring specifically, I find that most often, the people who care enough to spend a bunch of money on going from like a 80% to 95%+ in physics courses are pre-medical students. Personally, I feel more satisfaction in helping an average student (who is taking physics for a science requirement) go from a C- to a B. But, I take any clients who are willing to pay as long as they agree to my ethical tutoring principles (i.e. I'm not going to do their homework for them). 

Were you successful getting clients? I've thought advertising myself, but I really don't believe people will pay me the amount you posted per hour.

[TakeruK]

Were you successful getting clients? I've thought advertising myself, but I really don't believe people will pay me the amount you posted per hour.

 

Yes. I did a lot more tutoring in undergrad than I did in grad school because of the time issues. As an undergrad, I charged $20/hr for tutoring that happened during regular hours on campus and $25/hr for tutoring that took place on weekends or evenings and/or at my client's house so I had to travel. People were more than happy to pay this amount and they seemed to be very happy with the help I got. A lot of my clients were referrals from my past clients. It got to the point where I quickly reached my limit and had to turn people away.

 

In grad school, I didn't have a lot of time to tutor so I didn't even list my name on the department tutor list. I only had time for maybe 1-2 hours per week and I got most of my clients through referrals from my friends who were overloaded. All the graduate students in my department charged $30/hr (we all agreed to not undercut each other etc.) and they all seem happy to pay it. Some of our students told us they would be happy to pay $40/hr even but we felt that would be taking advantage of them. However, almost all of us who were charging $30/hr had a ton of experience tutoring in our undergrads too.

 

When meeting a new client, I have a quick chat to figure out their goals and make sure that I can help them. I tell them my rate and offer my first hour for only half of that so that we can both gauge whether or not this is a good tutoring relationship. I don't want them to waste $30 if I can't help them at all. All of my clients felt that I was helpful enough that they would be willing to pay the full rate for many more hours afterwards, and a lot of them even refused my discounted first hour rate. 

 

Ultimately, what I am saying is that to be a successful tutor (both in terms of making money and helping students), you really have to make sure you put your clients' needs first and ensure you are going to be able to help them succeed. If you do the preparation for your session and care about their success, you will do a good job and in turn, you will be a successful tutor! 

 

Finally, I do realise that private tutoring plays a role in helping well off people get ahead of those without these financial resources. One thing that I did as an undergrad tutor was to work for my student government's tutoring service. They provide free drop-in tutoring for all students in first year classes and pay us tutors a nominal salary--it's much less than private tutoring but it's better than minimum wage and you get to feel like you are really helping people who need it. To me, this was enough for me to make peace with myself as I try to balance my own interests with what's best for society.

[microarray]

Urgh, but they take so much time and pay so little. Not very efficient.

 

not necessarily true. there's ways to strategize. I only take 2-3 minute surveys then there's lots of $1 surveys. If you use the reddit site I posted, it shows ones that are "worth doing".   If you're just sitting at home and relaxing, it's totally worth it. 

Edited May 6, 2014 by microarray

[spectastic]

do jimmy johns carriers get good tips?

[ProfMoriarty]

Hmm... this makes me think giving Spanish lessons/tutoring might be a decent source of income for me!

[PsycD]

Bones, I'm in the same boat. Fully funded, but barely for the first year.

 

Because of the way my first year is structured, there is no way I'm going to be able to work during the school year. So, before my program starts in the fall I'll be working 60-70 hours a week as a courier during the summer until I leave the country for school. The pay is way better than I expected, and I won't be stuck in an office all day making minimum wage. I love driving and I'm always on the road, so it's perfect for me.

 

Some other ideas:

 

Tutor

Volunteer for Clinical Research Studies (if you're near a large research institution; the overnight studies pay VERY well)

Bartend

[bsharpe269]

I also find that babysitting can be great money, especially if you can get jobs in the evening when kids are asleep. The hourly rate isn't anywhere close to tutoring but if you charge around $12 an hour (this would vary depending in where you live) then you can easily make $60 in an evening. I usually take date night sort of jobs and I end up working for an hour and then the baby goes to bed and I get paid to study all evening.

[GreenePony]

If your schedule allows and you are a competent dog-person, I had a friend who worked as a dog walker during our grad program. It's easier/safer to be employed by an agency/company who organizes the bonding and insurance (which protects you AND the client). She spent a couple of hours around midday and there were occasional evening and weekend walks, too. Her company paid her half of what they took in for each walk, plus tips (I tip my walker ~15%) so for a 30 mn walk, she is paid $10. Some companies do require you to have access to a car, depending on the quality of public transit and how dispersed the clients are.

[i.am.me]

I got a part-time job teaching to ESL students also - the pay has been decent enough where I can afford to eat out a lil bit more  I only work 9 hrs a wk/3 days a week - on of those days on the weekend.

[juilletmercredi]

Things I or other grad student friends have done for extra money:

 

-Statistical consulting (if you have the skills.  Most large universities have a service you can sometimes join, or you can freelance it.  I've done both and get my clients through referrals on the second end).

 

-Other kinds of consulting work - I have a couple friends who served as part-time consultants to firms in the city.  One helped a non-profit write grants; another helped a non-profit design health improvement programs for their company.

 

-Taking on extra classes as a teaching assistant (check out other departments.  Sometimes related classes need TAs.)

 

-Adjuncting (also easier once you already have the MA and once you aren't taking classes anymore, but if you have some time and expertise, it's a thought)

 

-Working as a research assistant for a nonprofit, NGO, etc. (check out Idealist.org, they list these there.  This is easier to do once you get past year 2 and have your MA, or if you come in with an MA)

 

-Work as a project manager/coordinator for a professor (this is easier to do once you are ABD, because you have more free time.  I have a lot of friends in the sciences who did this because it pays more than GRA and fellowship stipends).

 

-Working as a graduate assistant in student affairs, career services, etc. (most universities with undergraduates have a variety of GA positions that support work with undergraduates.  I worked as a hall director in residential life for two years, and got free housing as part of my compensation!  I've also had friends work in fraternity and sorority life, student advising, institutional advancement, the writing center and the undergrad dean's office).

 

-Babysitting/nannying (sign up for Care.com)

 

-Dog-walking (there's a website that you can sign up for this, too; I don't remember the name.  There are also several services that will place you with clients)

 

-House-sitting (sometimes these gigs are paid - usually not, but check it out)

 

-SAT and GRE tutoring (many many companies.  Kaplan and Princeton Review are everywhere; Manhattan Prep pays the most - $100/hour! - but will only take you if you scored like 90th percentile+ on the SAT or GRE.  You can also do this freelance.)

[hewhomustnotbenamed]

I noticed that most of this is tailored towards PhD's, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for Master's students. Any options that we could take to get some side money other than waiting tables?

[rising_star]

Besides waiting tables, you could look for a part-time job in an office answering phones, which would probably give you time to do your work while you're there too. Tutoring and dogwalking are definitely viable options for MA students too. Other ideas are working in a bookstore or movie theater, lifeguarding, after school program assistant (if your classes get out early enough), and any sort of legitimate work from home gig you can find.

[spunky]

eBay/Amazon FTW!!! gosh, it started from a little "i-need-some-cash-on-the-side" thing to a serious back-up plan to make a decent living.