11 Fun And Productive Hobbies For College Students

Remember college is a place for higher learning. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have fun, and build the best experiences of your life.

Looking back on your college days should bring fond memories and captivating experiences. We are not here to tell you not to study or ditch classes but to actually make the process fun and exciting.

There are many fun hobbies that can help you do just that.  They can also help you earn money to help with minor expenses down the road in college.

These hobbies can even be placed on your resume because it adds value to you as an individual.

We’ve created a detailed list of 11 hobbies you can choose from. Pick your preferred choice and grow it to the best of your ability.

Best Hobbies for college students (Cheap and Fun To Do)

Podcasting

Podcasting is a way of sharing helpful information in audio format with listeners.  You can share stories and documentaries with your audience.

Statistics show that nearly 50% of students listen to a podcast for at least 2 – 3 hours. View a podcast like radio on the internet.

You write almost all the time in college. Essays, Technical Writing, and many other projects your professors give out to you. Flip it the other way and share helpful insights and advice with others. It can be a fun hobby to get the words out of your mind to other minds. It is one of the best hobbies to pick up in college.

Here is a list of some of the most popular college podcasts

• Student Life Hacks
• College Info Geek
• TED Talk Daily
• Stuff Mom Never Told You About
• Tiny Leaps, Big Changes
• Good Life Project

Before you start, you need to have a schema for your podcast to ensure it becomes successful.

 Here are a series of important steps to take the guesswork out of podcasting.

• Ask yourself what the podcast is going to be about.
• Why you are starting a podcast?
• Who is your target audience?
• Pick a topic for your podcast
• How can you provide value?
• Name for your podcast
• Create Artwork for your Podcast
• Planning your episodes
• Length of your episodes
• How frequently you can upload?
• Creating an RSS Feed
• Choose a hosting platform for your Podcast
  • Anchor
  • Bluehost
  • Buzzsprout

Essential gear and tools needed to start a Podcast     

Microphone

You want people to listen to you for the duration of your episodes. So, give them a nice audio experience. If you are not giving them that, no matter how good your content is. It will fall flat on its face.

Some recommended types of microphones

• Blue Yeti USB Microphone
• MAONO 192KHZ/24Bit Plug & Play PC Computer Podcast Condenser
• Shure SM7B Microphone
• Samson Q2U

Audio Recording and Editing Software

There is a lot of audio software you can use to help you with your podcasting.

There are free and paid ones. Below is a list of some of them.

• Audacity
• EditPoint
• Adobe Audition
• Squadcast
• Riverside
• Alitu
• Audiate
• Decript
• Hindenburg
• Zoom PodTrackP4

If you don’t want to waste much time learning the software, which might have a steep learning curve, I suggest you go with Alitu and edit your audio in minutes not hours.

You can also hire people on freelance sites like Upwork or Fiverr to do the heavy lifting for you.

Promoting your Podcast                     

There is one beautiful quote going around which goes like this “Build and they will come”. THAT is not TRUE in the internet world.

There is so much competition on the internet. It’s not even funny. After going through the trouble of creating helpful content for people, uploading it, Hours go by, then months without a single person listening to your content.

It can be very frustrating. The best way to improve your chances of being seen and heard is to use social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook to point people to your podcast.

Photography

Photography is not meant for photography majors. Capturing captivating images and memories of your college days is fun.

Dorothea Lange a famous photographer once said “Photography takes an instant in time, altering life by holding it still”.

You don’t need to be a pro photographer or even have all the knowledge of photography. All you need is practice and perseverance.

As Percy W. Harris once said “Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase.

Basic things you Need to Know About Photography

• Model from your friends studying photography.
• Be open-minded and enjoy your time taking pictures
• Make mistakes. You don’t learn something new from success. You learn from failures
• Don’t buy expensive cameras. Get the cheapest one possible. Choose from below the list of recommended cameras for good images.
• Although you are not a professional, you want your images to look nice.
• Practice and grow

How to plan and start taking images

• Find inspiring moments you want to take pictures of
• Choose a good camera
• Take your Images
• Tweak and organize them with online or offline software like
  • Fotor.com
  • Canva.com
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Bridge to organize
  • Affinity Photo
• You can print them out with a printer
  • Check out this Kodak Dock Plus 4×6” Portable Instant Photo Printer 
  • Very fast and affordable

You can also store your images on SmugMug, Amazon Photos, Adobe Portfolio, or Google Photos for safekeeping. All of them are really good.

Recommended cameras for sharper and nice images

• Kodak PIXPRO AZ421 Digital Camera
• Nikon D3500
• Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV
• Fujifilm X-T200
• Fujifilm X-S10
• Nikon Z5
• 6. Canon EOS 90D
• Panasonic Lumix G100
• Sony ZV-1
• Panasonic TZ200/ZS200

Quick Note: Although photography is one of the fun hobbies, we think you should pick it up. Remember with practice it can become a business for you in the future.

Learn a new language

Who says we need to speak one language? It’s cool and fun to be able to express yourself in numerous languages.

Learning a new language helps you to see the world from a different culture and be more open-minded about other people. Simply speaking, it makes you more friendly.

 It is also very good for job prospecting. Bilingual graduates are three times more employable than the average graduate with a degree like everybody else.

 Being bilingual comes with so many benefits. But you don’t need to spend a whole lot of time on it.

There are apps like Duolingo and Memrise to help pick up on the basics of any language you may choose.

Here is a list of the Top ten languages by the British council as the most relevant languages of global standing.

1. Spanish
2. Arabic
3. French
4. Mandarin Chinese
5. German
6. Portuguese
7. Italian
8. Russian
9. Turkish
10. Japanese

Vlogging

Vlogging is a blog in video format. It is just acting your life out for others to see. And you will be surprised people that love to have insights into people’s lifestyles.

There are dozens of college students doing this kind of stuff.  Some of the popular ones on YouTube are; Yasmine Amin, Elliot Choy, Sienna Santer, Hannah Elise, and Josh Dean just to mention a few.

They just basically carry the audience through their day; from getting up, getting ready for school, going to classes, and almost anything interesting they do during the day.  

They make money through YouTube AdSense, Selling Merch, and Affiliate marketing.

Components of a Vlog

• Story Telling
• Filming
• Emotion
• Video Editing
• Background Music
• Gear for filming and editing

How to Vlog

Vlogging can be simple if done right. You don’t need expensive cameras and other fancy equipment to start.

All you need is a camera of good quality. Because your audience is interested in watching high-quality videos and not movies from the 90s. Have them in your mind always.

To start, pick interesting things in your day you want to share with others.

It could be places in college, your gym sessions, and even when you are eating.

Film as much content as possible with your camera.

Place them in editing software and create a story out of it.

 I will give you a list of editing software you can pick from down below.

Add music to it and you have a video to upload to YouTube. It is always important to start from somewhere.

But if you want to have good training on how YouTube works, check this beginner video on how to start a YouTube Channel or invest in a course called YouTube Mastery by Matt Par.

It is a very comprehensive course on making money with YouTube and it has a lot of helpful information.

I will also suggest you start a website for your channel. Very helpful when you start growing.

Free and Paid Software for Editing your videos

Free                                                                                  

• Hitfilm Express 
• DaVinci Resolve        
• Window Video Editor
• Lightworks
• KineMaster
• OpenShot
• VideoPad

Paid

• Hitfilm Pro
• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Wondershare Filmora Video Editor
• Viddyoze

Other Equipment needed for efficient filming

• A simple pocket camera
• Tripod
• Microphone

Being a student can be fun if you want it to. Vlog your way to success

Coding

Remember the movie Social Network, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. It shows how Facebook, a Software, started as a small project by Mark Zuckerberg in college and became a multi-billion-dollar company.

If you haven’t watched the movie before, watch it here on Netflix.

From the phones, we use to our computers, smartwatches, and even the cars we drive have programs built into them by programmers.

Coding is more like writing English. Just for machines

Wouldn’t it be fun to learn as a hobby this lucrative skill, which can grow into a business?

I know programming can seem difficult. But with practice, it gets easier. As I said earlier you have to start somewhere.

Before you start programming, it’s important to know the language you want to use for coding.

 Here are some of the most popular programming languages.

• Python
• C++
• C
• Java
• JavaScript
• PHP
• Ruby

I suggest you start with the basics first in your spare time. Use these free resources at udemy.com or Codeacademy to get started.

Coding takes practice so keep at it and learn.

Freelance Writing

Writing? Yes. We do it every day. Ever since we could hold a pen we have been writing. Why not write for others. This is where freelance writing comes in.

Freelance writing itself comes in forms such as business to business writing, copywriting, technical writing, writing for niche blogs, Ghostwriting, and SEO writing.

One big piece of advice when it comes to writing is to just write and practice a lot.

As Ray Bradbury said “Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.” 

Jay Nloean also said “Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”

There is a huge opportunity to take this hobby to six figures a year.

Steps to follow when starting a freelance writing

• Make a list of skills and things you know about which will help you narrow down on topics to focus on
• Select a niche you want to write about
• Research your niche to help you know more about your potential clients
• Create a freelance portfolio website to help you stand out
• Use freelance websites to get gigs
• Use social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram to get clients.

List of freelance websites to get jobs

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• Problogger
• Iwriter
• Contently
• Skyword
• FlexJobs
• Contena
• Textbroker

Traveling

Yay! Traveling! Yeah, it’s fun and a great way to break boredom and have fun. You get to meet new friends and engage in new adventures.

Take time out of your day after lectures and take trips to other locations outside your college.

This particular hobby can be paired with vlogging. All the interesting sites you might catch are content for your YouTube channel.

Trips can also take you out of your country into unique places you may be interested in.  You can take summer, spring, or winter breaks and move to other places on the globe.

Why is Travelling as a college student worth it

Learn new things

Getting out of the closet of our environment and moving to other places opens the mind to novelty. You get to learn about new cultures, visit places of interest like museums and famous landmarks in popular countries like Costa Rica, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Iceland.

Meet new people

As a college student, traveling to other places creates opportunities to meet up with people from all walks of life.

Best places to travel during

Summer Breaks

• Greek islands
• European trips
• Daytona Beach, Florida
• Panama City Beach, Florida
• Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
• Cancun
• Miami Beach
• Bahamas
• Jamaica

Spring Breaks

• Germany
• Italy
• Switzerland
• Costa Rica
• Belize reefs and ruins
• Grand tour of Ireland
• Japan
• Thailand
• Iceland

Winter Breaks

• Indonesia
• Philippines
• Vietnam
• Thailand
• Asia

What you need to travel outside the country                

Travel Documents

You can’t get out of the country these documents.

Passport

As a college student, you should already have a passport. But in case you don’t check about this website to help you with the process. It enables you to travel internationally.

Visa

You may require a visa depending on which country you are traveling to and your mother country.

A visa is like a permit from a foreign country you seek to enter. For example, when foreigners travel to the United States, they are required to have a U.S Visa. Check out iVisa.com to help you with your visa requirements

Gear

Whether outside or within the country you there are some essential things you would need on your journey.

• A Rolling Bag
• Backpack
• Water bottles
• Multi-purpose Passport wallet
• Travel hanging toiletry bag
• GUM Antibacterial Toothbrush Covers

Cooking      

Aren’t you bored eating the same meals over and over again? Me personally I like variety. Research shows almost 50% of students are bored eating the same food. 

Having different recipes to try every week makes my life so much fun. Enough about me.

Cooking isn’t hard. All it takes is practice and the willingness to make mistakes. Cooking makes you productive because it helps you to save money on expensive junk food.  A study conducted shows that people who cook at home are healthier.

Here are some of the recipes you can try out:

• Roasted aubeergine & tomato curry
• Cauli-kale sausage bake
• Halloumi flabreads
• Sausage ragu
• Double bean & roasted pepper chili
• Mexican pulled chicken and beans

Love watching television?

Here are some of the free popular food shows to learn the ways of a chef.               

• Floyd on Fish
• Mann v Food
• Jamie’s Kitchen
• Food Fight
• Will Travel for Food
• How It’s Made

Watch them here on Netflix.com

If you feel hesitant to learn cooking but you need variety in your meals. Try this meal delivery service and you won’t be disappointed.

• Home Chef
• Sun Basket
• Hello Fresh
• Eat Better Meals

Painting

The world can be a beautiful place if you want it to be. You don’t need to be an artist to paint and draw in a sketchbook. All painting is expressing what you see on paper. You don’t need to be a world-class artist or an art student to get involved in it.

All you need is a sketchbook and brush pen and paint the world.

When you start painting, everything becomes interesting. Your friends, college professor, your food, and everything else becomes something you can express on your sketchbook.

Creativity becomes a regular part of you. This is one hobby I will suggest you pursue

Recommended supplies to start painting

• A sketchbook
• Paintbrushes

Volunteering

I know you feel occupied with so much to do. From classes to homework to clubs and many other activities. But you can still find time in your busy schedule to help others and make a difference in other people’s lives.

According to this research done by experts shows that people who volunteer to help other people have better mental and physical health and are less depressed.

 If not for anything, do it so you can improve as a human being.

Reading

Books are like windows to the mind of others. It is fun and can help you improve in your studies.

 Why? Because it broadens your scope of knowledge and helps you to connect ideas in a vast number of ways.

All the hobbies I have been talking about can be learned from books in your leisure time. As George R.R. Martin said, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one”.

So go to your college library and start reading.

What to do Next

Enjoy your college life and have fun with these hobbies.

If you find it hard to choose a hobby, check this post about choosing a hobby.

We also have a massive list of hobbies you can choose from.