<p>Replying to post 498:
Around here, the tutoring is strongly driven by the parents – interestingly, for almost all varieties of tutoring – even for “last-minute”/“last-chance” test prep for students who have declared an interest in a Tier 1 or Tier 2 college, as well as urgently needed grade improvements, as well as strictly enrichment/supplementation. 99% of it is parent-driven. This may be a regional thing, or reflect marked differences in public educational standards (and outcomes), region by region.</p>
<p>loremipsum - Like epiphany said rates aren’t that great…even if they were somewhat decent it still probably wouldnt make sense economically to take a gap year to do this (maybe doing it for other reasons makes sense but not this). </p>
<p>Just think about it this way…say your kid got a high hourly rate $25…and worked 5 hours per day 5 days a week…plus 9 hour days both weekend days for a total of 43 hours/week x 52 weeks = 2236 total hours (obviously this is an exageration…since no one will get this amount of hours for tutoring). So total in this extreme example your kid will pull in 56K (gross)… </p>
<p>Why do this if he can just go to HYPSM and graduate 1 year earlier and likely get a job that pays at least 70K base…even more in all in comp. I think in my class total comp average was in the high 90ks - low 100ks…that said Wharton is skewed slightly high b/c more than 45% of the class goes into investment banking where average total comp for a first year is 130-150K.</p>
<p>response to #502:</p>
<p>ephiphany - That’s pretty interesting…back in my class I can only remember a handful of student out of a class of ~300 whose parents drove them to do these things…we would actually make fun of one of our friends b/c his mom was so pushy and over-bearing, she was so annoying. The rest of the students that took these tutors, SAT prep courses, CC classes, etc. all did it b/c they wanted to do it. Maybe its a regional thing or maybe things have just changed since I graduated from h.s. (I graduated back in 2004) where back then things were student driven and as more and more students did it then it became parent driven…who knows.</p>
<p>In HS, how many kids would have the foresight to know to request/pursue tutoring? There are probably some students who have done their HW and researched the college app. process and recognized that this may be helpful, but I would guess its is a small minority. In my s’s school they offer some in-house SAT tutoring classes for, I believe, a small fee. Some have the foresight to use them, but not a lot. And this was at a private school that really structures the college app process. I imagine its less so in many/most publics.</p>
<p><a href=“British Kids Log On and Learn Math — in Punjab - The New York Times”>British Kids Log On and Learn Math — in Punjab - The New York Times;
<p>Another article from the New York Times, which focuses more on athletic “tutoring” but also comments on academic tutoring as well.</p>
<p><a href=“The Pros and Cons of the Tutor Stampede - The New York Times”>The Pros and Cons of the Tutor Stampede - The New York Times;
<p>Away from this forum for a few days, I now see that there is nothing wrong with our trying to help our kids do better, be it academic or sports, within our means, be it financial or intellectual. Everyone is a “Johnny, Inc.” to a certain degree. Those of us with kids who don’t need “tutoring” are lucky or maybe not as caring.</p>
<p>btw, for those that are interested, I was watching an interview with Bill Gates and he referenced the following website as a site he uses with his kids…</p>
<p>[Khan</a> Academy](<a href=“http://www.khanacademy.org/]Khan”>http://www.khanacademy.org/) </p>
<p>I’ve looked over it and it is really interesting…has lessons on everything and it’s all free. really interesting stuff…</p>
<p>Private tutors with strong reputations who book their own appointments and make house calls (or see kids at their house) get $50 to $95/hour in our area. The high end tends to be more for very advanced math and science tutoring.
My friend is a teacher and applied to work at a local tutoring center that charges clients about $75/hour, depending on the number of hours purchased in advance. She was very disappointed to find out that the tutors were paid $18/hour by the tutoring center.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Wow. I don’t think that was my contribution, and I mostly see others just posting factually what they observe (as opposed to registering an opinion, necessarily).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Correct. If one is employed as a tutor for a company – not self-employed – one will likely earn $15-20 for the non-specialized, non-rarefied tutoring assignments.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I may agree with this if we broaden the definition of “Johnny Inc.” to include more than just over-the-top-turning-A-to-A±because-Johnny-has-to-be-the-best ahead-of-curriculum tutoring. Yes, the line may be blurry, but I still think there is a difference between helping a struggling kid and “incorporating” an already exceptional student for the sole purpose of besting his/her academic peers. This type of activities undermines team work and cooperation, two aspects that are highly valued and needed in high level research and in the workplace. Since the goal of Johnny Inc. is to destroy his/her competition, rather than learning how to work well and cooperate with others, kids find ways to backstab one another to get an edge for themselves. Jealousy and mistrust run rampant in this environment.</p>
<p>^ Well said. Can’t disagree with that.</p>
<p>Wow, have I had my head in the sand! Talked with GC at phs and she said we did have kids with a private college counselor (nothing was mentioned about tutoring). All of the students have parents that are well off financially (all helicopter parents) and all off them are “second tier”–not the very top, but pretty smart. None are Ivy League by any stretch. But here is the kicker. She said the “private” counselor is encouraging these kids to apply to all kinds of schools that the kids don’t know anything about! One is applying to 25 schools (and has NO CHANCE at 15 of them). I guess it is to have a long list of acceptances to brag about? Several are applying EA at 5 or more colleges because their private counselor said no one would find out! The private also told the students to lie about EC’s–public GC called a kid out on it and kid admitted private counselor told them to do it (again no one would know).</p>
<p>But the real kicker? The public school GC has to write letters of recommendations for all these kids to the 20+ colleges they are applying plus send transcripts, etc… The “regular” kids are getting less of her time. So hmmm…this is quite inequitable. Not only are these kids getting an advantage, their greedy use of the school counselor’s time is putting other’s at a disadvantage!</p>
<p>I asked about kids trying to take a class at CC, then retake it in high school for the easy A–she said that is impossible here because the CC will not let the kids take a class there without the GS signature and a signed transcript in hand. Also, our hs has a policy that if the class is offered at the hs the students must take it there. CC classes are only for students who have exhausted all that the hs has to offer in a particular subject or offers something the hs doesn’t (e.g. certain foreign languages).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There are lots of colleges in the US that are wonderful colleges and could be a fit for a kid. Unfortunately, kids (and parents, unless they are on CC) don’t know about them! One of the purposes of paying a private counselor is for him or her to spotlight these schools for you. </p>
<p>25 schools does sound excessive, though. People who are in need of financial aid are counseled to apply broadly because you don’t know which schools will end up giving you the best package. There may be 25 colleges on the list you start out with–then you whittle the list down to something more manageable.</p>
<p>Maybe your school will have to institute the 20 application limit rule…</p>
<p>"25 schools does sound excessive, though. People who are in need of financial aid are counseled to apply broadly because you don’t know which schools will end up giving you the best package. There may be 25 colleges on the list you start out with–then you whittle the list down to something more manageable.</p>
<p>Maybe your school will have to institute the 20 application limit rule… "</p>
<p>20?!! My public urban magnet high school had an absolute maximum limit of 8 total applications. </p>
<p>Only exception is that application to multiple SUNY and CUNY campuses counted as 1 application for reach respective system. Moreover, the GCs were strict about limiting the number of high-reach (No applying to all 8 Ivies or schools within that range) schools so no student is left without a few safeties he/she could go in case he/she is rejected elsewhere. </p>
<p>Also, GCs made sure lower-performing students were strongly discouraged from applying to Ivies or similar-type schools and topflight students weren’t applying to schools “beneath their academic capabilities” because of lack of confidence and/or they were too enamored of non-academic qualities like the school’s football team. The last was one reason an older classmate with HYP stats was strongly discouraged from applying to BC because his sole reason was being a big Eagles football fan.</p>
<p>“public GC called a kid out on it and kid admitted private counselor told them to do it”</p>
<p>That could be true. Or the kid could be covering his butt. A kid who would lie on his application wouldn’t have any compunction about blaming a third party for his actions.</p>
<p>“Not only are these kids getting an advantage”</p>
<p>If the stories about the private counselor are true, I doubt they’re getting much of an advantage by buying his/her advice.</p>
<p>In 2002 I was coming off a period of disability and to see if I could hack it in the work force I had a brief stint as a tutor at a well known California SAT prep company. They only hired people with college degrees, and many of them had degrees from the favorite universities around CC (HYP etc.). I think most of these elite school graduates were trying to break into the entertainment field in some way, and were using the tutoring much as someone else might use a job waiting tables.</p>
<p>Anyway, to get hired on, they made you take a mini SAT, then an interview, then a full blown SAT, then go through their training program. You were expected to use their training method, which was pretty good but was pretty intuitive and similar to something you might find in a book somewhere.</p>
<p>I think I got around $30 an hour, and they charged something like $1000 for 10 one-on-one lessons. Something like that. Just speaking for my students they had pretty good success- Typically 100 or more points overall (out of 1600 - no writing when I did it). So the pay wasn’t much, but they did all the marketing for you, and if you wanted you could get 40 hours or more a week.</p>
<p>But two things -
Like I said, I don’t think the program was unique or the only way to succeed on this. The recommended methods here on this site (maybe the xiggi method or silverturtle’s method) would work as well if the kid is motiviated. I think the main reason for the tutor was to carve out a time and a place that the kid could dedicate to prepping for the SAT.
Most of the students I tutored were not looking to turn 750s into 800s. Out of probably 100 kids I tutored I think less than 10 were over 1400/1600 examinees. These kids didn’t really need my help. Most of the kids I tutored were looking to turn mid to high 500s into mid to high 600s. And a few just to break the average score.</p>
<p>Bovertine – those are the kids we’ve seen doing test prep – kids trying to get to 2000-2100.</p>
<p>The kids we know who did 15+ applications did not fare nearly as well as they hoped. S1’s HS recommended 6-8 schools (HS class of '08), but acknowledged that many were doing ten. Ditto S2’s school. One of the folks I mentored last year was on a merit/excellent FA hunt and applied to nine. </p>
<p>Both of my kids (and my mentee) had a list of 10-11 schools, and because the registrar’s office has a long lead time, the GC package went to all of them. However, all three of them dropped some schools in December whether because of EA acceptances or realization that merit/FA would not be adequate. At my kids’ schools, by the time we heard from EA, it would be too late for the registrar to get out packages to additional schools by 1/1. Therefore, we went a little long on the list because adding schools at the last minute was problematic. (Cost for schools dropped: $3 transcript/GC/profile package and any CB scores we actually paid for.)</p>
<p>Our GC writes one rec letter, which is sent to all of the student’s schools. I haven’t heard of many GCs who will write a custom letter for each school on a student’s list. Both of my kids’ large, public schools had a registrar who actually put together the GC letter, profile, transcript and special program inserts into an envelope and mailed them out.</p>
<p>mtnmomma, if the kids are applying to five Early Action schools, that is fine – as long as the EA schools don’t have restrictions (i.e., Stanford and Yale are Single Choice EA, Georgetown EA allows you to apply to other EAs, but not an Early Decision (ED) school). S1 applied to three EA schools – no conflicts or problems with that.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A friend spent 10k on her daughters private tutor class for AP Physics (all three) and AP Calc. It was a year-long course every Saturday, for the whole day. Since her D’s 6th grade, she’s invested around 35k on her D’s education with various summer classes and such. That’s right, 35k. <em>twitch</em></p>