Recommended Online Activities for College Students

Life as a full-time college student is tough. I must say that because I am a college student myself. It is hard to have a part-time job, but still keep a good grade at school and get involved into school's activity and community service. However, I have found and used these websites, which make my life a little bit easier. These websites may be very familiar to you. You may already have it in your bookmark and used it on daily basis. I'm sharing my experience about using these sites effectively and some potential you may want to explore.

1. Book selling and buying sites:

This could be eBay, Amazon or any sites that are selling your required textbooks with a cheaper price. First, take your time to go to your school's bookstore to find out what's the price of the needed textbooks. Then, go to the websites and participate in auctions that sell them. I am using eBay myself; and normally, I can save about 40% of the textbook price by buying online. However, you should buy the textbooks 2 or 3 weeks BEFORE your semester started because normally it would take 1-2 weeks for the books to arrive. My school has quarter system (a quarter only lasts 10 weeks), so I cannot afford studying without the books for 2 weeks. When the semester is over, don't just participate in the bookstore's textbook buy back since they would not buy them back at a good price. You can list it on eBay again to get your money back. I recommend you to ship the book as soon as possible after you receive a cleared payment. The buyer is expecting the book to come just as you used to expect it. This also helps you build up positive feedbacks. Remember, you want to re-sell your books at another time, so those good feedbacks help to attract more buyers and thus, bring up the auction price. My part-time job, which earn me 600$-800$ a month, is selling on eBay. I'll mention more about it later in this article.

2. Ratemyprofessors.com:

For those of you, who do not know this website, this is where users can read comment about most of professors. However, do NOT take this site so seriously. I use this website only to find a study strategy for the class that I will take. For example, I would take comment like "Tests are hard but do the home work and attend his lecture, you should be fine" or "Read the textbook carefully before going to class, that would help you to understand better". I never listen to other students, crying about their classes like "Stay away from the class, lectures are nonsense, midterms and finals are ridiculous"... To me, every professor is trying to help student understand the material, one way or another. They are your friends, not enemies. Therefore, use this site for your determination to study hard and get pass the difficult tests, rather than your decision to drop the class or change professor.

3. Social websites:

MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo! 360... you name it. It is always a good time to socialize and to make new friends. Like an old saying, "Rather have one more friend than one more enemy". You never know how a handshake can change your life. If you do not have a study group, I strongly recommend that you should participate in one. It will not only help you to save your time in studying but also make you understand class material much deeper and easier. You should also know one or two students in your class. Believe me, all it will take to make a new friend is a smile and a handshake. However, do not spend the entire time chatting and messaging online. I did mention that I have a part-time job. I was lucky to make friend with a soccer jersey distributor from England. He provides me soccer shirt to sell on eBay. I made about 20$ for each shirt that I sell. And yet, this job is very flexible and easy for a college student like me.

4. Your school and city's website:

Last but not least, you can always find school activity and community service from your school and city's websites. Participating in those activities is the best opportunity to create a good resume for your job in the future and your chance of winning some scholarship. Yet, it is also a good chance to make friend with new people and exploring new environment. I happen to meet the distributor guy in an English-American tradition exchange activity, hosted by my community.

Other than using those websites, you should always try hard in studying as well as in your life. I just recommend you the way to use them; the rest is really up to you. I am a full-time student at University of California, San Diego; and I do have straight A with a great part-time job. So, that is my experience. I hope that those websites also help you to save money, get a better grade at school and make new friends.