Houston is sprawling. Yes, I am certain that parents are able to find adequate tutors close to their homes or schools for their children and would not drive downtown unnecessarily. I am also certain tutors do not drive out to those areas unless they are already employed out there or live there. Tutoring is local. It is not difficult to find local tutors usually so there is no reason to travel for that.
There are many current and former teachers and highly educated women no longer in the labor force in most neighborhoods here, and many tutor on the side. While there is substantial demand for tutoring, there seems to be a robust supply of tutors conveniently located.
Okay, so if my daughter wanted to live where she can charge the highest rates to mostly high school students, where should she be located? She also can tutor middle school and college as well (maybe Rice students?).
She originally wanted to first target families/students living in the wealthy areas (Bellaire, Memorial, Kirby, River Oaks, etc.) She has a pretty good resume but just needs to market to families/students who are financially able to pay a high rate for long-term/yearly tutoring.
I don’t know how Rice students get tutors. I expect there is a referral office on campus. I know one woman who put herself through college tutoring full time in the Woodlands, but that is seriously suburban, though there are very many students and parents paying for tutoring there. I imagine your daughter would be happiest in the Kirby area or similar, and would find some clients there. Sugar land has a large Asian community with an excellent high school, Clements, with lots of tutoring, but again, does she want to live in the suburbs? There are many tradeoffs to consider.
Doesn’t Rice have tutorial services on campus for their students…at no cost? Most colleges do.
I live in a somewhat rural area. Even so…families would not drive 30 miles for tutoring. They just wouldn’t. Around here, most families who seek tutoring do so with teachers from the schools their kids attended. Or by word of mouth reference.
I’ve done some tutoring, but folks drive to me. And none have traveled more than 10 minutes from their home. They don’t need to…because there are plenty of folks within that range.
Your daughter is well established where she is…I’m still wondering why she is relocating.
It’s going to take time for your daughter to get herself established in this new area as a tutor commanding top dollar. She may find she needs to seek some other employment while she establishes herself in a new location.
The suburbs you mention that are 20-30 miles away usually take at least an hour to get to one way given the traffic. I cannot imagine anyone would drive that far into Houston for tutoring or vice versa. @roycroftmom and I have told you the way it is. The area around Rice, Upper Kirby or the Galleria would be the most centrally located to the affluent close in enclaves. However, the students she will be targeting have access to lists of tutors through their private schools. There are some excellent centrally located HISD public schools such as Carnegie Vanguard, DeBakey, HSPVA and Bellaire which may have students with the means to hire expensive tutors. The KIPP, Yes Prep and Early College high schools tend to have lower income students. Many Rice students work as tutors themselves.
Thank you again for your posts. Do you think it may be a good idea for her to go to the suburbs during weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) to tutor a bunch of students to expand her client pool (if she can’t find enough in the beginning within the loop)?
The traffic will be a lot better on the weekends. Maybe Sugarland or the area around Cinco Ranch High School would be places to find students for weekend sessions.
We live in Dallas but my daughter paid $20-$30/hr for a senior HS students to tutor her and we now pay $50/hr for an SMU assistant professor to tutor. We can get tutoring at a storefront two miles away run by a former teacher. It’s $80 for two hours before a test – World History AP. The students also came to our house. The professor tutors out of his office. My dad is a college professor in east TX. He goes to doctor’s kids’ homes.
This may not be the case at all, but if she is trying to establish Texas residency for medical school admission and reduced tuition purposes, she would want a more conventional job with a pay stub.