Tips from a college student

After finally graduating, I can now give some advice to current and future students that I wish I had been told. Because I am currently looking for a job, most of what I have to say is related to that.

It is very important that you do an internship at a company you would like to work for after graduation, and one that will potentially hire you. Do not choose an internship based on pay, because in the long run an unpaid internship could land you a higher paying job than a paid one depending on what experience and company you'd be working with.

Freshman and Sophomores are not too young to begin looking for a job or internship. There are many programs available for summer work for underclassman that provide very valuable experience and can go a long way to finding a job after graduation.

Start looking for a job your Junior year, and be sure to apply at every major company by October of your senior year. This seemed to be the magic date that employers stopped excepting applications and began the interview process.

If you are even considering graduate school at all, go ahead and take the admissions tests for it and apply at any schools you feel drawn to. This is important because by the time you make up your mind you may have missed all the deadlines (yes, I did that).

Try your best to have a job lined up by graduation. You do not want to be looking for one after you graduate, because that time of unemployment can be very stressful and is a bad way to launch your career.

I wish I could pass this along to every college student in the world, because if I had known these things my life would have been much easier over the last few months. If you know someone in college, or about to enter college, send this along to them so that they will not end up where I am now.

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You can now use Twitter to find the cheapest place to buy your textbooks. This is a neat new program being launched this semester.

Click this link, or copy and paste the url below.

http://www.campusbooks.com/books/textbook_tweetbacks.php



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I mentioned in a previous post that I am looking to get into real estate investing. I have been wanting to do this since my second year in college, when I realized that there is a huge market in college towns for rental properties because of all of the college students renting off campus. I am sure that it varies at different schools, but I have determined here that the average rent is around 300 dollars a person. I am still working on the numbers, but that creates a great opportunity to buy a house or townhome and rent it out.

I have made friends with several Realtors in town and plan on contacting them soon to let them know of my intentions to purchase a property to rent. There are several things to look for when purchasing a rental property. It is important to find something that you can rent easily first of all, because if you can't rent it then it becomes a very expensive liability very quickly. You want this to be an asset, which is something which puts money in your pocket.

This leads into the next thing that you want out of an investment, which is positive cash flow. The income from rent needs to cover the mortgage payment, property tax, insurance, maintenance, HOA, etc. These costs are all very predictable, with possibly the exception of maintenance. A good handyman or home inspector can give you a heads up on potential problems that could lead to expensive repairs in the near future. It would be wise to have this inspection done before purchasing the property, that way you can use it as a bargaining tool to get a better deal on the house.

This brings up a third thing to look for in your investment property: appreciation. You want to get something that is in a growing area of town, that is not going to lose value. A good real estate agent can advise you on this more.

There are many tax credits available right now for first time home buyers, and if you are going to live in the house then you can get financing easier as the primary resident. A good idea for college students is to convince your parents or a close friend with good credit to cosign so you can get better financing.

Look for future posts on real estate and techniques for achieving greater cash flow through depreciation and tax savings.

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Dominic Corey from the UK has created a wonderful website for helping students write their dissertations. It is valuable for anyone writing a dissertation from undergraduate through doctorate levels. This website covers everything from choosing a topic to formatting and even gives samples. If you have to write a dissertation soon or know someone who does, check out this site. There are some parts that try to get you to buy something, but most of the information is free. I wouldn't buy the stuff probably, but you can evaluate that on your own. Generally I just grab the free information and move on to the next site.

Here is the link:
http://www.dissertation-help.co.uk/dissertation_guide.htm



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After about a 10 month lapse I am back. I have been extremely busy with school and work, and got burned out on blogging for a while but now am back and ready to update.

It has been a while since I have written anything, but I have been working my butt off trying to find new ways to make money as a college student. It has been difficult with school and my regular job, but I am working on a few different things that could end up bringing in some income. Some opportunities have more potential than others, but all are worth the time for sure. I will write more about these things very soon.

In the mean time, I have been socking away all the extra money I make into savings, waiting for a real estate opportunity. I am almost ready to buy my first investment property, and have a cosigner ready to go when I decide I am ready. I will write a post about what I plan on to do in real estate and my strategy after I update some of the other opportunities.

Stay Tuned...

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Dumblittleman has a guest post that is great for college students. It has some great websites that every college student should use that are free. Check out the list here

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Many people are going to provide you with a ton of study techniques for exams and tell you all these so-called secrets to passing exams, but lets be honest. There is no secret to passing exams, it is obvious. The basics is you have to know the material and regurgitate what the teacher wants you to know. There are some things that can help you do a little better on the exam though.

Definitly get plenty of rest the night before. If you don't you will be so tired that you can't focus on the exam and all the studying you did will be wasted.

If it is an essay exam, write wayyy more than you need to. In my experience I always get a better grade when I write way more information into it than I think I need to include, because it shows the teacher that you know your stuff. Essay grading is subjective, so you want to be on your teachers good side. Even if you don't know a lot about what you are writing about, if you write a lot of material, even if most of it is b.s., as long as it isn't just crap you will probably get a decent grade.

Take your time. Do not rush through the exam, but on the other hand don't second-guess yourself on every answer. I have realized that almost everytime I start to second guess I get the answer wrong. If you don't know the answer skip it and come back to it.

Always ask the teacher for extra credit. The worst thing they can say is no, but sometimes they will give you a very easy way to get extra credit. I think anyone would be happy to get some extra credit at the end of the semester!

Eat before you take the test. Do not eat a whole lot, because that can make you sleepy/groggy and mess up your concentration. But you do want to eat something because you can focus better with food in your stomach.

Pray. Alot. Duh.

Don't panic. Never ever ever panic during an exam. If you do, you may as well leave because you will fail. When you panic all of your logical thinking goes out the door, along with your good grade. Always stay calm and don't stress if you don't know one answer.

Make sure you give yourself adequate study time, and do a good review of the information. This one should be obvious also.

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