The Internet is a tremendous place to examine and compare college student credit card offers, and there are plenty to choose from. The web pages that are designed for this are complete with the wording and visions that would appeal to today's college student. In other words, these companies want your business, perhaps in many ways by making it even a little bit TOO easy to qualify for a college student credit card. These companies realize that if you get into trouble, they will get the money from your parents or in some cases, even from your scholarship or grant money, so they will not go unrewarded.
For the vast majority of students, getting a college student credit card in today's world is almost a necessity instead of the luxury it may have been only a few short years ago. College life today is dramatically different than when your parents went to college, and it is also dramatically more expensive. The college student needs to purchase books, materials, equipment, pay for lab fees, food, laundry and so many other things. Even the best of budgets cannot anticipate all of these needs, but even if a budget could, it is not a good idea to be walking around campus with a lot of cash on you.
Sometimes parents think that their college kids will not be able to understand or handle the financial responsibility that comes with having a college student credit card. This may be so, but when are you going to learn? Some parents may have missed the boat in teaching their younger children about financial responsibilities, but waiting until you have graduated from college is NOT the time to START that learning. Having a credit card while you are in college for the expenses that need to be taken care of will be teaching you that fiscal responsibility now, so that you can hit the ground running when you graduate.
There are a lot of college student credit card offers that students, perhaps with help from their parents, to choose from. Be aware that the student credit card is very likely going to have a higher interest rate, which is set that way purposely to cover the increased risk to the card issuer, but even at that, with a year or so of consecutive timely payments, you can request that the interest rate be lowered, since then you will have established a positive relationship with the credit card issuer.
Be careful of choosing a card that allows the owner to get cash advances from ATM machines. The problem here is the temptation to use it for non-essential things. Like if everyone else on your dorm floor is going to Florida for spring break but you cannot afford it, the temptation to withdraw a few hundred dollars on a cash advance on your credit card will be a hefty temptation. This is not a good option if you can avoid it, since there are few places where the college student needs to make an educational-related payment where a credit card would not also be accepted.