what should I do with $15000?

You need to invest the money.

There are two factors affecting your decision as to how to invest it.

One: your time frame

Two: your risk tolerance

The first one is easy, you have two years to leave the money invested.

The second is something you will have to answer. How would you feel about losing some of the $15K, even if it was only for a short time? If that sounds outright insane to you, then you are risk averse (i.e. you are not a risk taker). If that sounds OK, then you are risk tolerant (you are a risk taker).

With such a short time frame (relative to investment time frames), a lower risk investment is called for. The reason is simple: if you lose some money on an investment, you can't just wait it out for the investment to rebound. So a lower risk of losing money is needed.

A money market account, as stated by one of the other answers, is low risk, and can earn a reasonable 5% (if you shop carefully). You would not lose money on this type of account, but the returns are reasonable not outstanding.

A bit higer risk is a bond fund. Commonly called an income mutual fund. This type of mutual fund invests in bonds, which are typically lower risk than stocks. But, they provide the chance of a bigger return.

Next up the risk ladder is a stock index fund. This type of fund invests in stocks, specifically a "basket" of stocks that matches a particular stock index (such as the S&P 500). This diversfies the holdings so your gains/losses are not tied to a single company or industry. The fund tries to match the results of the index it is modeled after. Of course, when the market goes up or down so does the index and so does the stock index fund.

These are all options that could fit your time frame. The final decision should be made based on your risk tolerance.

If you plan on leaving the money alone for longer (say 5 or 10 years), you can take on a little more risk. You might consider a growth mutual fund. This type of fund invests directly in stocks picked by the fund manager. Again, the risk goes up, but so does the potential return.

Another answer mentions real estate. This can be a good investment as well. However, the one thing to consider is the investment is not liquid. This means you cannot just turn the investment into cash whenever you want. You have to sell the property, which can take time. This is another kind of risk. What happens if you graduate and need to move across the country for the best career opportunity? Can you sell the house in time to move? Or will the opportunity pass you by while you wait for the house to sell? This needs to be considered as you decide on how to invest your money.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

You could use it to purchase a house and then rent out most of the house as rental income. At the end of two years you could stay there and work in the area or sell it and probably realize a small gain in price... but the cost of living and the mortgage would have been covered by the renters.

Do your own math based on the area but:

2 years

You paying Rent $400 a month = 20 months *400 or $8000

Buying

mtg payments $700 a month.

utilities etc. 350 a month

Income from renting out say 2 bedrooms = $800 a month for 10 months

taxes say $1000

Money spent $11200

so you end up spending about $4000 more and own a house at the end of 2 years which you can sell or rent out the 3rd bedroom or keep up the current arrangement.. IF you can rent out a 3rd bedroom and take the basement then it is about break even.

Do your own math and ask around, real estate prices and utilities and rent vary greatly!

if you are a risk taker buy some leap options for jan2009 or 2010 in companies like GE, MO, BAC, CAT, XOM and as a riskier play, NYX. you will have control of a few hundred shares of each through leverage, unfortunately you will not get the dividends, but you will get the stock appreciation. again, this is a pretty risky thing to do with your money, but if it plays out, which i think it will, you could be looking at some nice gains in 2 years. almost forgot, buy silver (SLV)

Stocks always outperform any other asset class, if you do the work. Hands Down.

There is a lot of good advice in the previous answers! The only thing I would add is make sure to keep your debt down to zero. A little bit of debt can cost a lot more than you will make on a really good investment. Therefore, you will need some liquidity. How much depends on your lifestyle.

If i were you I would put it into a Money Market account of some sort. Some banks are giving pretty good interest now days. Some as high as 5% which is better than nothing!

If you put it under your mattress it will depreciate in 2 years but still be there.

If you put it here:

http://www.goldmoney.com/

You have the option of storing Gold that has appreciated @ over 100% in the last 5 years or holding it in interest bearing savings accounts in 4 currencies, or switching back & forth.

Are they reputable?

I have been very happy with my investment with them. But take your time and e-mail questions to them here:

http://support.goldmoney.com/

Good luck.

Open a brokerage account at Zecco and invest in Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Toyota and Apple.

you could always just forget all the confusing numbers a lingo involved in investing and give it to me :)