College students are always looking for a quick buck. The endless nights of going out to Midtown and then going home and ordering a large pizza would cause anyone's wallet to become slim. What most students might not know is that they can make money off of their class notes.
StudySoup is a new website that will pay students for their notes and study guides. StudySoup calls their note takers “elite,” meaning the notes the students take and submit to the website must be very detailed and their own work. Along with writing very detailed notes, the “elite note takers” must submit a study guide before each exam and receive $25 each study guide turned in, regardless of if any students buy the study guide.
“It’s actually kind of funny, 'cause the more tests you have in a class, the more you can get paid for those study guides, because it doesn’t matter if people buy them or not,” said Katie McGuiness, University of Florida student and StudySoup note taker.
Each study guide must be turned in at least four days before the exam in order for the student to receive the $25. For each study guide the note taker sells, she will receive $8, and for each set of class notes sold, the note taker will receive $4.
Even if a student does not sell any of his/her notes through the site, they will still receive the base payment and hopefully achieve better studying habits. Students must take each set of class notes given by the professor and put them into their own words.
“I take messy notes in class and then go home and put everything into my own words. I hand write all my notes and then upload them to StudySoup,” said McGuiness.
McGuiness hopes to make her study guides and notes even more original by adding links and pictures to help keeps students interactive and also interested.
Students who submit notes can easily access other notes through what StudySoup calls “karma points.” If a note taker promotes his/her page on Facebook or some other site, they will receive karma points that can be used to buy notes.
Students who want to buy notes but not write notes can also do that through the site. Students buy prepaid packages with a certain amount of points and are able to buy as many notes as the points will get them. The first set of notes for any student is free.
“The first set of notes is free, so it allows a student to sample for style and see if they want to buy your notes,” said Jocelyn Gordon, University of Florida student and StudySoup note taker.
Gordon has been taking notes for study soup for two semesters now, and says she wants to keep taking notes throughout her time at UF. Gordon takes notes for multiple classes and has seen her hard work pay off.
“I feel like I have more of a responsibility to take good notes and pay attention. Not just for me, but for my classmates as well,” said Gordon. “I feel slightly stressed about having to take good notes, but it’s more positive than negative.”
