Money is one of the hardest things to come by on college campuses. Some students, however, are finding ways to make money without a job.

Freshman kinesiology major Travis Pirtle, for example, makes his money playing poker.

“I’ve been playing poker for almost three years now,” Pirtle said. “Online poker is so convenient because you can play whenever you want. You can be up at 3 a.m. on a Wednesday night and find a game.”

Not only has Pirtle played poker online, but the money has been rewarding as well.

“I played a little over the summer and probably made close to $300. Not much, but the main reason I play is because I like playing poker; money is just an added incentive,” Pirtle said. “I’ve had weeks where I’ve cashed out $300, and weeks where I’ve cashed out only $20. On average, I make about $150 a week.”

Pirtle enjoys making a lot of money without the hassle of getting a job on or around campus.

“I’m glad that I can make money doing something that I enjoy doing,” Pirtle said. “It’s nice because it’s difficult to find time for a real job in college. I can base online poker around my schedule.”

Other students, however, have not had such luck.

Sophomore music major Josh Marsh responded to an ad in the Northern Star last year for a job in which he took online surveys.

“I actually came upon an ad in the Northern Star for the company itself,” Marsh said. “It was in the ‘jobs’ portion of the classifieds.”

After taking a few surveys, Marsh realized the time and effort he was putting toward taking the surveys was not worth the little money he was making.

“After discovering how sneaky and backhanded they were about it all, I only did a few surveys. I made about $10 in probably three days; spent maybe 30 minutes a day on surveys,” Marsh said. “However, they charged me $20 to sign up for the survey site, so overall I lost money.”

Marsh, however, still finds ways to make money without getting an actual job.

“I check the announcement boards in the Holmes Student Center a few times a week. Generally, there are a few cool paid psych experiments or other things going on where you can make a little cash,” Marsh said. “For example, a few weeks ago, I took part in a psych experiment for crime video and memory response; it was only three hours long overall and they paid me $40 cash to participate. Not a bad deal at all.”