Is there a successful tutor in the house?

[SNPCracklePop]

Hi. I'm thinking about tutoring for the students in the nearby community colleges to make some extra money. Anyone have any experience/tips/success stories as a freelance tutor? Any tips to help get me started would be much appreciated. Thank you so much!

[Chai_latte]

Yeah, I'm interested in this too! I plan to start with those anxiety- ridden pre-meds

Edited November 10, 2012 by Chai_latte

[TakeruK]

I was a pretty successful (in my opinion lol) tutor during the last few years of undergrad and while I did it as a MSc student as well, I just didn't have as much time as a grad student!

I think the most important aspect of being a successful tutor is connections!!

I would first find out if my fellow students are tutoring too and work with them so that you don't undercut each other. Find an agreed-upon rate. This depends by location but a number that has worked for us in multiple places is something roughly $30/hr. Next, find out if your own department posts tutor lists. My old department used to have a page listing contact information for all grad students interested in tutoring (and what courses they could tutor) and then undergrads who wanted extra help beyond office hours would contact the grad students. So you might not even have to tutor students outside of your own school. One important thing is to find out what conflict-of-interests rules might exist if you're a TA as well. The general rule is that you shouldn't privately tutor a course that you are currently TAing, but usually old courses are fine. In fact, you can be pretty successful in tutoring, e.g. PHYS 101 if you were a TA for PHYS 101 in previous years.

I say work with fellow grad students/tutors because you might want to find someone quickly to cover for you in case you get sick or have to be away for a conference etc. Or maybe you're just really busy one week. You could also cover for your friends as well if they are busy or are away. At my old department, we formed an ad-hoc tutor network where we could trade students. In addition if one of us had a full schedule but a new student wanted help, we could direct them to other tutors. This works really easily if you guys all charged the same amount.

In addition, I found that it's important to make it clear to your students what your role is. Sometimes students expect you to do their homework for them. I personally believe this is unethical tutoring. If I need to show a student how to do a question as an example, I either change the numbers or pick another question in the textbook that isn't assigned. I think it's important to make this clear on your first meeting, so that the student knows what to expect.

Student satisfaction is really important. It's far more valuable to have a repeat student schedule you every week than to do lots of one-time sessions with different people. I usually tell the student that the first session is 50% off so that we both get a feel for things. Sometimes our teaching/learning styles just don't match up. Almost every student appreciates the chance to find the best fit for tutoring and almost all of them end up paying the full rate even the first day. I think it's very important to have a good rapport and almost a partnership between tutor and student. If you treat them as purely a source of income, I don't think you will be as successful. I also find it really rewarding in non-financial ways when my students share their successes with me. From a practical point of view, it has also been beneficial since they recommend me to their friends.

Hope that is helpful!

[ktel]

I recently started tutoring a number of students. Some of my clients I obtain through a service that I'm a part of, and as such I typically have to hand over up to 1/3 of my hourly pay. I also have a few clients I have found on my own, and hope to find even more. I love it. I love helping students with whatever problems they may be having. It's also an amazing mental break for me and gives me a boost of confidence after a long day of research because it reminds me that I am indeed smart and capable. During midterm season last month I made just over $500.