The Lemon Life | online magazine offering a fresh perspective on post-grad life.

How to Make Your Student Status Last

Words By: Anna Merlan
Image By: Erika Thompson (special thanks to: laurennatclemson & Ol Slambert)

Student life has its privations and its perks – dorm living is awful and 8 a.m. classes are inhumane, but college also comes with any number of fringe benefits (besides an education, of course). While I was earning my bachelor degree at the University of California – Santa Cruz, I rode all the city buses for free. The health center was top-notch and my prescriptions were cheaper than at any off-campus pharmacy. My library card gave me access to all the UC libraries in the state. I could go to a great gym for free, one with a huge pool and a view of the ocean from the treadmills.

One of the toughest things for me to get used to after graduation was losing some of the quality-of-life bonuses that make college living so easy. But I soon discovered that there are many ways to hang on to your “student” status, to enjoy some of those perks for a bit longer, and to even make some of the habits of college students into a permanent way of life. Don’t worry: I’m not trying to suggest that you should be eating ramen noodles and sleeping in a tiny room with two strangers forever. Here are some suggestions on how to use all those little survival skills you carefully honed over four (or more) years.

Save your student I.D card. That little piece of plastic will get you into movies, museums, sporting events, and plays on the cheap, no matter how awful your hair looks in the photo. Is this a little dishonest? Maybe. But you’re still on a student budget, right? If you find yourself still using the card when you’re married, have kids, and are starting to find gray hairs, then it’s time to stop.  Find out if your school has an alumni association that offers some type of benefits to its members. My alumni membership was free for the first six months, and $40 a year after that, which is fairly standard. It bought me continued library access, cheaper gym membership fees at the campus gym, reduced rates at some hotels in the Bay Area, and even an option to buy into a decent insurance plan.

These things are a reward for your education, and an invitation to continue being part of the school, if that appeals to you. The alumni association is also hoping that one day you’ll donate lots of money, but try not to let that bother you too much. 

Think about becoming a teaching assistant. This is an especially feasible idea if you’re still near your former university and built a good relationship with any of your professors. Don’t be afraid to call or email an old professor and let them know that you’re available to help out in an assistant capacity if they need it, or even cold-call the department itself and ask if a teacher is looking for someone. Though many teaching assistants are graduate students, this isn’t always the case. It looks great on a résumé and it often pays pretty well.

Finally, there are more intangible things about student life that you shouldn’t be quick to cast off. Being part of a university means having access to an incredible range of cultural events, a community-wide conversation about art and literature and politics and music. If you’re still living in the city where you went to school, or really in any city with a university, take advantage of the things happening at the school. Attend a performance or a reading, or even sit in on a class if someone exciting is speaking. Don’t forget that, corny as it may sound, learning is lifelong, and it’s valuable even when no one is grading you on it.

• Lemonomics