A few weeks ago, Caroline asked, "Will you work during college?"
I wanted to share some of my thoughts on this topic with you soon-to-be college freshmen. 
Since you're new to the college scene and may be looking for a job to fund your expenses, my suggestion is to find a low-key, on-campus job so that you still have time to explore, transition smoothly, and have fun!
During my freshman year, I worked for UC Berkeley's Call Center , where I fundraised for departments and programs on campus. I know it sounds very telemarketing-ish, but you'd be surprised! The alumni were generally easy to talk to and were even fun to network with. Over the course of the job, I was able to make some valuable contacts while getting commission. Plus, having this experience on your resume shows potential employers that you are a good communicator.
With school about to start, campus job postings should be plentiful. Good places to look for part-time jobs are your school's web site and career center. On my campus, library jobs seem to be in great demand. I hear they're flexible and come with plenty of perks, like downtime to get reading done. How amazing does that sound? Getting paid for doing your own homework!
If you have a passion for journalism, you can write for your school's newspaper (like Barbara did), or if you're into tutoring and mentoring, there are usually plenty of those jobs to choose from (Staci was a tutor in her college's writing center).
My final bit of advice: Don't become a workaholic and forget to live your college life! There's plenty of time to build your resume and work with amazing people. In the meantime, focus on surviving your first year of college.
Great update Delenie!
I did get to work in my college library, although not until my senior year. It was a GREAT job, and a great excuse to study.
However, one of my bigger regrets was NOT getting a job until my senior year, because I didn't want to do it. (i.e. food services)
Now, several years out of school, many of the most successful people I went to college with did their work study and extra jobs at, you guessed it, food service. Many of them are now managers, or running their own businesess. Plus, they met lifetime friends (who couldn't be buddies with someone you spent hours scraping trays with?)
My advice would be to explore all jobs, even ones that don't look so appealing from the get go, may teach some valuable lessons.
Thanks for all your lovely advice Erica! I am thinking about spicing up my senior year and working at Jamba Juice or Starbucks...might as well do something fun while I'm still in school!
I agree with exploring all jobs. You never know where it'll eventually take you!
I had a "work scholarship" at my University's Communications office, it paid for 7 credits (out of 39 to 40 per semester) on my second year (University of the Americas-Puebla). My dad was thrilled and so proud that I was "helping" with my tuition costs...
Two to three hours a day I got to do clerical work, answer the phone, interview other students and faculty members, write columns for the bi-weekly paper, review all the local and national newspapers and clip any articles about our school, went to concerts, conferences and over all had a lot of fun. It paid off, my work is all about writing now and I was a very shy person when it cam to talking and approaching strangers, having that semester's experience helped me deal with this.