Hi,

I am Chaitali, a fall’09 student from India.  Like all international students, I too found the cost of living in U.S. too expensive. Especially in my case as I have had two years of work experience. For two years I had supported myself, not taking any money from my parents and all of a sudden, here I was - once again, dependent on my parents for all my needs. Every dollar I had to spend on myself, I converted to Indian Rupee value and thought of it as extra expenditure.

I was very determined to find a way to earn some money.  I was willing to explore all possible arenas. The idea was not to finance myself for the remaining part of the studies, but to get enough that I could cover my living expenses. So I noted even the faintest idea that came to my mind and tried to implement it to make some cash.

So here are three very common strategies that I observed students follow:

1.       On-Campus jobs: The safest way to support you as an international student in the U.S. would be to find an on-campus job. No hassles, legal and if you are lucky enough, stress-free too! However, the ease of finding an on-campus job varies in every university. Although in most cases, students do land up an on-campus job, the scenario changes from university to university. If a university has a large campus or many departments, then finding an on-campus job perhaps is the easiest task to accomplish! However, if the size of the university happens to be small, finding an on-campus job could be more difficult than scoring an A-Grade!

2.       Off-Campus jobs: If we rate on popularity terms, this will overcome the on-campus jobs by far! But why is it so? Is it the money involved? NO! As a matter of fact, money in off-campus jobs is often much less than what one could make in on-campus. Having said that, I must also state that one can yet make enough to earn the general cost of living in U.S. where about 5 people would share a 2-bed apartment and would prefer cooking at home rather than eating at restaurants. I may also admonish students that it is illegal to work off campus while on an F1 visa and not having completed a minimum of 9 months in U.S. I certainly would not recommend following this path. If you are patient and competitive, you will definitely get an on-campus job.

3.       Tutoring: Ok Geeks! This one’s for you guys. Finally all that mug-up of texts could come in handy. If you are a graduate student here, you will be the preferred choice of most under-grads. However, one has to know at least the syllabus topics well, if not the entire subject. Finding of a student who will need tutoring can be trivial at times – that is, if your university has department (like career center) where all students can put up their requests for tutors it would be easy to find tutoring opportunities – else it would require a lot of diligence.

So if you are a student looking for some job opportunities do try these and also post more ideas that you think may help other students.

-Luck and Regards,

Chaitali D. Gohel.

Calling for Cease Fire...

Source - EMail.

In prison: You spend the majority of your time in an 8x10 cell.
At work: You spend most of your time in a 6x8 cubicle.

In prison: You get three meals a day.
At work: You get a break for 1 meal and you have to pay for it.

In prison: You get time off for good behavior.
At work: You get rewarded for good behavior with more work.

In prison: A guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
At work: You must carry around a security card and unlock and open all the doors yourself.

In prison: You can watch TV and play games.
At work: You get fired for watching TV and playing games.

In prison: You get your own toilet.
At work: You have to share.

In prison: They allow your family and friends to visit.
At work: You cannot even speak to your family and friends.

In prison: All expenses are paid by taxpayers with no work required.
At work: You get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from you salary to pay for prisoners.

In prison: You spend most of your life looking through bars from inside wanting to get out.
At work: You spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.

In prison: There are wardens who are often sadistic.
At work: They are called supervisors.

In prison: You have unlimited time to read e-mail jokes.
At work: You get fired if you get caught.

Source: Email

Thanks to Ashwin for proving the following funny pics

WHAT IS THIS SUPPOSED TO MEAN ????????????????

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