What to do with a little money?

I highly recommend the book "trend following" by michael covel be on your investment book reading list.

A trend following newsletter which I use is http://www.investment-models.com/

That guy has a 34 year record of success, the fee is $250 annual subscription, which is very reasonable. and you can utilize his recommendations with either buying dia (dow stock index) or qqqq's (nasdaq stock index) or options on those instruments for higher leverage. Or just buy mutual funds which mimic an index of the dow or nasdaq.

That being said, you indicate that your 10k is primarily for school costs and should not be put into the stock market.

Your best option is interest bearing accounts such as cd's or high interest savings, until you can allocate the funds for more than one year.

Profitable investing in markets is not a short term (less than one year) enterprise unless you are very knowledgable. Trading, like poker, is a zero sum game, and there are more sharks trolling for fish in the markets than at any poker site.