Freelance Jobs for College Students: Start Your Freelancing Career

Are you looking to start a freelancing career while in college?

Juggling college classes and a side hustle at the same time can be challenging. Luckily, there are tons of ways to earn extra cash at your own pace and schedule. The beauty of freelancing is having control over how much or how little you work.

You can work in between classes, in the evening, over the weekend, and even over the holidays. Spending your spare time in college making extra cash from freelancing can do so many things for your life and career including:

• Gaining skills and knowledge from first-hand experience
• Networking opportunities with business owners
• A head start on paying down your student loans
• Real-world experience working on critical skills needed to succeed after you graduate
• Extra spending money for travel, toys, or the ability to put money aside for early investing

Now that you are sold on the advantages let’s get into some of the opportunities that college students have in freelancing.

Check out these top freelance jobs for college students to get started.

For all of the extroverts and those of you who love meeting new people, consider becoming a tour guide. This is also a great option for anyone looking for freelance jobs for college students while far from home.

Invest some time in learning all about your current location, and be ready with facts and stories. Airbnb has an “experiences” section of their app/website where people can offer to “host” experiences such as food tours, pub crawls, city tours, or even fun classes.

If you are new to your college town, spend a few nights and a couple days on the weekend riding your bike, or walking around some of the most popular parts of town. Walk into some of the local businesses and ask if they have any fun stories or cool history about their store, their building, or their neighborhood.

It is also a great opportunity to get to know a lot of people around town which always comes in handy. Asking your professors is also a great way to learn about the city. Work on your public speaking skills, find some funny stories to tell, get your name out there and get to work.

ESL teaching is one of the most popular freelance jobs for college students. Most of the time, a teaching degree or certification isn’t required. All you need is a friendly and lively disposition. You can learn all you need to online, take a few classes, and you are off to the races.

There are always going to be people who need to work on their English skills and you can help them make it happen. If you are studying abroad you may already be tapped into a great network. And with Zoom and the availability of online tutoring tools you can do it from anywhere.

This is one of our favorite online jobs for college students because you get to interact with different people while still enjoying the comfort of your own dorm room or apartment.

There is no shortage of freelance writing jobs for college students, making freelance copywriting quite popular. If you love writing, but you don’t want to create your own blog, and you’re looking for easy, quick freelance writing jobs, this one is for you!

You can sell your services or apply for gigs via freelancing platforms. All you need to do is sign up to the platform of your choosing and pitch your services. If you don’t have any experience and want to build your portfolio, write for fake companies and have fun with it!

Copywriting as a side hustle is a great way to earn extra cash and we wrote about it extensively to provide you with everything you need to know to get started.

Do you want to learn more about freelance writing jobs online for college students? Check out these four tips on getting started.

If you’re a creative person with experience in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, or even Canva, graphic design is the gig for you.

Build a portfolio that showcases your work. If you don’t have that many previous clients or none at all, create mock samples. If you have an artistic side, and know your way around the Adobe Suite find clients as a graphic designer.

Designing logos can be a great place to start, but don’t stop there, start getting into designing websites, brochures, business cards, t shirts, infographics, or social posts for local businesses.

Even just getting familiar with tools like Canva can get you moving in the right direction. You can easily create great designs that will wow most customers.

Looking for easy, quick freelance writing jobs for college students? Why not become a transcriptionist?

This job involves turning voice recordings into text—simple as that! You can start anywhere at any time, and becoming a transcriptionist requires no previous experience.

There are platforms out there that are little or no cost tools that will perform 90% of the transcription for you by simply uploading the audio file. Once it is done processing you just need to listen back and correct the errors it made.

You can charge by the minute and easily transcribe hours of audio in no time by using the shortcut tools that are out there.

With video taking off the way it is, you can find gigs working for video production companies that need to transcribe their videos for use as close captions and for social posts and more.

If you’re looking for freelance jobs for college students and know the ins and outs of social media—like the difference between a reel and a Tiktok—this job may be perfect for you. Reach out to local businesses in your area and find out if anyone is looking to outsource social media marketing services.

It is pretty much guaranteed that there are going to be several businesses, likely within walking distance of your college, that could use this service.

Is there a local bakery or coffee shop that you frequent. Check out their social presence, and if it sucks, show them an example of a competitor that is killing it and tell them that for $$$ per month you can make them look that good.

Local businesses need a strong presence on Facebook, Instagram, Google My Business, Yelp and other and you can be the one to help them drive more sales.

There are tons of ways to earn extra cash on your own schedule in today’s modern world. If you’ve been looking for freelance jobs for college students, we hope our list gave you some ideas to get started!

Do you want to get a jumpstart on your freelancing career? Apply to our school for freelancers! We’ll help give you all the guidance you need to thrive in your freelancing career.