# How can a college student earn $10,000 over summer vacation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2002, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731 "2002-05-13T02:00:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/21 "2002-05-13T22:56:04Z")
Ditto ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/22 "2002-05-13T22:58:06Z")
Ditto, send me one too. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/23 "2002-05-13T22:59:12Z")
Thank you, **Ringo**. Now I just have to decide if I’m still tough enough… ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/24 "2002-05-13T23:05:34Z")
Done **Muad’Dib**. Sure you are, **galen**. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/25 "2002-05-13T23:25:40Z")
**Muad’Dib** , the email address in your profile didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/26 "2002-05-13T23:48:20Z")
SDMB JobFinder, at your service 🙂 I know that in Hamilton, Stelco and Dofasco (steel companies) pay quite a bit for labour - I know one guy on an 11pm-7am shift earning 24$ (cdn) an hour. So if the oli rigs don’t work out, try something like that… ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/27 "2002-05-13T23:49:27Z")
_eeep!_ Forgot about that, it should be updated now. ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/28 "2002-05-14T06:00:55Z")
I can think of one way, but it’s only legal in Nevada. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/29 "2002-05-14T07:10:00Z")
It’s the Alaskan king crab fisheries that are particularly dangerous; that’s the one featured on “top 10 most dangerous jobs”. They go out during the winter, and the main dangers lie in getting washed or pulled overboard, which can happen quite easily. There are other manual labor jobs in remote areas that do pay well and require little to no experience, but there are always catches. I hesitate to bring up such a silly source, but anyone been following Frances’s career as an Alaskan logger on Malcom in the middle? (God, I feel dirty)… but it’s really not all that far from the truth. I’ve been looking at some jobs in Northern Canada (these ones do require some skills), and seen that they pay maybe 1/3 more than the same job here in town and are easier to come by. Such jobs are fine if you’re just looking for a short-term deal to save up the money. You start screwing yourself if you decide you’ll go out in the boonies to get rich by digging ditches or carrying drill pipe and retire at age 40. It don’t quite work that way… but I digress. Are there summer jobs that you can do related to what you’re doing in college? $10,000 really isn’t that much when you spread it out over 4 months… $2500/month, or the equivilent to $30,000 a year. If that’s all the money you make you probably wouldn’t pay much in taxes either (at least here). Sometimes people get to thinking that they have to travel to some really remote location and toil away for 16 hours/day at an exotic job to make good short-term money - not really. I just now checked my city’s job board, and they’re hiring for things like seasonal laborers, gardeners, carpenters, concrete workers, and so on all starting around $18-22/hr. Hell, even the receptionists get $15-20/hr. 4 months worth of even a decent “normal” job will get you the $10,000 (as long as you can resist the temptation to blow it on a really fun road trip or new ski equipment as so many in the past have :D). ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/30 "2002-05-14T07:17:28Z")
Try and score an IT contract job over here - it’s tax free and some sectors are still quite highly paid. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/31 "2002-05-14T16:50:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Try a pharmaceutical study–ten years ago, they paid something like $100 a day, and there were studies that lasted from one day to a whole year. Robert Rodriguez financed his first movie that way–I believe it was El Mariachi. How would one go about getting into a pharmaceutical study? This starving-college-student would like to know… ---
**Author:** ![Payne\_N.Diaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Payne\_N.Diaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Payne_N.Diaz)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/32 "2002-05-14T16:58:00Z")
This is all hearsay, and I don’t know the details, so take it with a large grain of salt. I heard of a guy who needed some cash, so he started one of those little sno-cone/shaved ice stands in Arizona one summer, and he supposedly cleared about 20K over the summer. All he needed to do was hire a couple of high school kids to staff it. ---
**Author:** ![EchoKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@EchoKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EchoKitty)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/33 "2002-05-14T18:31:06Z")
Nude modeling for drawing classes. 25 years ago it paid about $10/hr. I imagine it’s gone up. Oh, and waiting tables at nice restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/34 "2002-05-14T18:42:20Z")
I live in Northern Alberta, and to make that kind of money (legitimately), you need to work on the oil rigs. But I see that I’ve been beaten to it over and over again. The only thing I have to add is that I know a lot of people who have worked on the rigs, and yes I can confirm that the pay is excellent. I know people who have financed a LOT of stuff doing rig work, including some people that would take semesters off here and there to not only finance their tuition, but all of their living expenses they require while they are in school. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/35 "2002-05-14T20:50:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pepperlandgirl \* > \*\* > > How would one go about getting into a pharmaceutical study? This starving-college-student would like to know… \*\* I know that the local pharmaceutical trials company that bought my blood\* would advertise for students all the time in the university’s newspaper. The ads would always specify that the trial subjects would have to meet certain physical characteristics such as proportional height-to-weight ratios. For females, they would sometimes specify that the subject be sexually active–or, in other cases, post-menopausal or surgically sterile. There are a lot of studies related to birth-control and “women’s problems”. All I can say is that these companies seem to specifically target college students, so look around in the local want ads–they are looking for you, too. \*I became very well acquainted with my veins after having eighteen blood draws in 24 hours. Oh, and in some cases, you have to sleep in a dorm–_they don’t let you leave_. Bwahahaha! ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/36 "2002-05-14T22:10:12Z")
Incubus, are you a guy or a gal? If you are female and not too attached to all o’ them little eggs in your ovaries, I understand you have a little gold mine ticking away inside of you. If you are male, it’s off to the crab boat for ye. …or you could buy someone else’s operating system and license it to a big computer firm. I read about a college kid that did something like that once and it’s gone really well for him. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2002, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731/37 "2002-05-15T00:10:37Z")
- - - Like Joey’s agent always says on Friends: “And of course, there’s always the other thing,” -“what’s that?” “Gay porn.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-a-college-student-earn-10-000-over-summer-vacation/108731.md?page=1)