According to research by Temple University, nearly 1/3rd of all undergraduate college students live in a low-income situation, and 37% reported they do not have enough money to eat healthily on a daily basis. Apart from your needs of textbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks (which we can hopefully fulfill), a student nowadays may also require many more things. We get many emails asking us questions like: what are the best resources for university students? Which ebook reader should I use? How can I pay for textbooks via bitcoins? Therefore, we decided to compile resources and tools for students that may help you with your education, save money, and get the most out of your degree.
We’ll try to list some useful resources and how-tos for today’s college and university students like cryptocurrency (how to start, which one is the best, etc), best software for ebooks, (legit) ways to earn money on the internet (p.s it does require actual work. Nothing is free 😁), open-source and free alternates to expensive software like Adobe Photoshop (use GIMP), ways to get MS Office for free (legally), getting cheap Netflix, Disney or other accounts and lots more!
So let’s start with:
1. Buying Cryptocurrency (like Bitcoin, Etherium, Litecoin, etc)
Nowadays, it’s very easy to purchase cryptocurrency. You can even earn via trading or investing crypto (however, that may require more time and learning). Anyways, these are some sites and exchanges where you can buy almost any good cryptocurrency using credit cards, debit cards, money/bank transfer, Swift transfer, MoneyGram, Payoneer, Transferwise, Revolut, Giftcards (yup) and tons of other ways!
1. CoinMama – Recommended. Safe and fast. Global
The above ↑ website does require a lot of verification of your data (esp if you want to buy bitcoins using a credit/debit card). If you want to avoid that (but do keep in mind, these become less secure and you have to be vigilant), you can use an exchange to buy/trade/sell cryptocurrency from/to other people. The two best exchanges we know are:
1. LocalCryptos (Global – peer to peer – only bitcoin, etherium and litecoin)
2. Paxful (Worldwide – only bitcoin. Has over 300 payment methods including gift cards!)We highly recommend sticking with the top cryptocurrencies, unless you are an expert and know what you are getting into!
1a. How Do They Work?
To learn how bitcoin and other cryptocurrency work, Wikipedia is the best resource we found on this topic! Click here to find out more about Bitcoin.
2. Getting Microsoft Office For Free (legally)
If you have an email address that ends with .edu, then you are in luck! This means you are either a student or staff at a university. You can legally download and use MS Office 365 when you enter your University’s email address! (it should end in .edu).
2.a Getting Edu email, Cheap Streaming, VPN, Educational, Torrents, and other accounts
In case you don’t have an email address ending in .edu, well, you can buy one from Reddit here!
P.S You may also find very cheap accounts of Netflix, Hulu, HBO, other streaming platforms, Grammarly, different VPN’s at a very low price, but do keep in mind that most of those accounts are either shared or hacked! 🤫
3. eBook Readers
There are tons of free and paid ebook readers out there, but not every reader is the same. Most ebooks come in PDF format, whereas some others are in .ePub, or .Mobi format. We have found that the best and most comprehensive software for viewing PDF files is Adobe Acrobat, though it is kind of slow. It’s available for all platforms (Windows, Android, Linux, MacOs etc).
If you are looking for something much faster, then you should try out the Foxit PDF Reader! It’s also free, available for multiple platforms, takes little storage, and is very fast!
If you want to view other formats, and want a simple program, then go for the free Adobe Digital Editions to view the ebooks. If you are a bit advanced or want something lighter and open-source, then Calibre is the best option out there! It’s a one-stop solution for all your ebook needs.
4. Getting high-quality free PDF magazines
You can check out MagazineLIB for many online magazines like Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Cosmopolitan, Economist, MacWorld, etc. Magazines are arranged by genre and months (going as far back as 2014). Do enable an ad-blocker as that site has a LOT of crappy ads! Though the magazines are very good 🙂
5. Getting your homework, essays or thesis done
We don’t recommend this option as this amounts to cheating. There might be a few genuine use cases (e.g. for research?). Anyways, some of you requested it and here are some sites that are actually good. They can charge a higher price though, as quality is costly (p.s We don’t have any relations with them, but we might have used them at some point 😉 Order at your own risk)
- Do My Homework 123
- US Essay Writers
- EDU Birdie (pay for essay)
- Essay Service
- Write My Paper 4Me
- WritingCheap
6. Open Courses & Resources
Check out Open Culture, a non-profit treasure-trove of information that you can use both for your personal development and research projects. It offers a nice collection of free lectures, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from renowned universities (e.g. MIT), free materials – audiobooks, ebooks, textbooks, language lessons, literature works, and movies for cultural studies etc
7. Educational ‘Search’ Engine
We all know about Google and Bing, but have you heard about Wolfram Alpha? A “computational knowledge engine,” Wolfram Alpha doesn’t so much provide search results as it does search answers. Simply type in a question or topic you may be interested in, such as, “What is the parity of sin(x)?” and the answer will show up without making you scroll through pages of results. This is especially handy for those in need of help with Mathematics (it can solve equations, do graphs, and a LOT more!)
8. Old Exam Papers
If you ever wanted to get old exams to help you study, check out Koofers. This site is full of past exams from your own school, college or professors (US only). You can also find grade distributions, course reviews,and other study resources to help you ace your next quiz.
P.S Many students ask us if Koofers is a legit site. Yes, its completely legit!
Finally
We really hope this helps you.
Do tell us if there is anything you would like us to add to this list, or help you guys and gals out with. Comment below or email us! We will keep updating this page and add more resources (Yup, we know that we haven’t added making money part yet, that’s because we’re still researching for legit services for students that work 🧐)
Stay safe and Stay well! Learn and spread knowledge! Take care 👍🏻
Colleen Stewart – For College Student Textbooks