<p>I start college this week and am thinking of ways I can make a little money while also having a little fun. Tutoring seems very rewarding and I could also gain experience for a career in psychology. I am sure that I could be a great tutor, but first I want to know exactly what I'm getting into. </p>
<p>So a couple of questions: </p>
<p>Are tutors in demand? Would I quickly get enough calls after putting up flyers at my old elementary school and local libraries? Or maybe too many calls, therefore a hectic schedule?! Keep in mind I have college studies to do myself.</p>
<p>Is a certification required for tutors? </p>
<p>What is the pay range? I'm thinking at least 10 per hour but not more than 20.</p>
<p>Could I focus on tutoring just elementary students? I can't see myself helping a high school student with AP subjects like calculus. Does it look bad if I draw a limit like this?</p>
<p>Does it sound like I would make a good tutor? I have outstanding english, lit and writing skills. I'm very good at math, A's and B's up through pre-cal. I'm great with anything to do with social science or history. I'm pretty good with science but I feel like I might need to refresh a few things (like chem); is this bad? I'm also an eagle scout and great when it comes to explaining things or providing motivational advice. I'm patient and great with kids. I think I'd be a good tutor. What do you think?</p>
<p>I don’t know about tutors for general subjects below high school. If you did pretty awesome on your SAT, I’d say SAT tutors are in demand. Lots of helicopter parents with badly performing children will go looking for tutors. I don’t necessarily think you’d be getting a lot of calls from parents that need elementary subject tutors. I mean,I would hope parents would be able to teach their kids elementary school education. </p>
<p>Sometimes becoming a tutor at your school can be a good thing. Since you’re good at English and Literature, why don’t you become a tutor in it for college students? I think it pays minimum wage and probably right up your alley in terms of how much you want to work per week. I think it just requires an application and good grades in the subject(s) you want to teach. Maybe you could even tutor in subjects like psychology, which I’d think you would know like the back of your hand.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if your school offers it, but I tutored through my university’s athletic department. I told them which classes specifically I could tutor and what hours I was available, and they matched me up with athletes who needed tutoring. If a student no-showed, I still got paid. Sometimes the athletes only needed to meet around exam times, or only if they had a concept or 2 they didn’t understand, so the money wasn’t exactly regular, but it was easy to work around my own schedule.</p>
<p>My son tutored at his school for 4 years in their tutoring center. It paid $9-$10/hour and it was scheduled work and you got paid, even if there weren’t any students looking for tutoring during your shift. The most popular subjects were Calculus, Physics and Chemistry but students were looking for tutoring for a wide variety of subjects.</p>
<p>Our son would often get emails from the tutoring director. There were college students and parents of high-school students looking for private tutors and they contacted the university tutoring center to see if they had someone that could tutor them. Rates would be substantially higher than what the tutoring center paid but the tutor would typically have to provide their own transportation to the client.</p>
<p>The requirements of the tutoring center were that you had to pass the course that you were tutoring for with at least a B.</p>
Personally, I would only offer tutoring services for elementary students if I had experience working with that age group. What’s your pedagogy? How would you work with a child that’s struggling with basic reading skills or doesn’t understand the concept of a number? Can you teach a child to organize their thoughts, to allow them to write a purposeful paragraph rather than stringing random sentences together? Teaching that age group is MUCH harder than teaching older students because they are still learning conceptual skills that you are probably taking for granted.</p>
<p>One big disadvantage of tutoring in general is that it’s difficult to work many hours. If you work a mindless job in the dining halls, it’s easy to schedule three 4-hour shifts. If you work at the circulation desk at a library, you might even be allowed to do your own homework during quiet times.</p>
<p>Tutoring works differently. Not only is it more mentally draining than many student jobs, you’d also have to schedule it one hour at a time. It’s not easy to squeeze 10 hours of tutoring into your week, especially if you are meeting your clients at their preferred site off campus. (likely if you tutor elementary students)</p>
<p>How easy it is to get jobs and how much you can charge depends on your local market. If your elementary school offers free after school help, there may be no demand for inexperienced tutors at all. On the other end of the spectrum, students at Columbia seem to get paid $50-$100 an hour because some families in Manhatten think that their kid is more likely to get accepted to Columbia if they have more connections to the university…</p>