First, welcome to FlyerTalk! I am a student, too, and I also operate under budgetary limitations, so maybe I can share one or two ideas.

First, a couple quick questions that people will want to ask:

• Can you tell us what metro area you live in? This might impact which program(s) would be of most use, based on what air/rail carriers have service there.
  
  -Student at Raleigh-Durham, family home near JFK/Laguardia. (Likely to be living somewhere other than R-D next year, but not sure where yet)
  
• How much travel do you typically do? For example, some of my classmates make annual trips to Asia to visit family. Others travel to academic conferences/boondoggles.
  
  -NY-RDU a few times a year. Occasional visits of friends in Boston, Chicago, DC. Looking to do more traveling with more miles!
  
• Can you tell us what your "travel goals" are? For example, I'm trying to accumulate miles for travel on Amtrak, for free travel in the Northeast corridor where I live and attend school.

-Travel goals = probably to accumulate enough miles to get a couple of free flights for domestic travel to visit friends/travel for fun.